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THE 

NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC 
MAGAZINE 

AN   ILLUSTRATED   MONTHLY 


EDITOR 

GILBERT  H.  GROSVENOR 

ASSOCIATE    EDITORS 

MAJOR  GENERAL  A.  W.  GREELY  ALEXANDER  GRAHAM  BELL 

U.  8.  Army  Washington,  D.  C. 

C.  HART  MERRIAM 

Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  the    Biological  Survey       DAVID  T.  DAY 
U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture  U.  S.  Geological  Survey 

WILLIS  L.  MOORE 

Chief  of  the  Weather  Bureau.  U.  S.  Department       R.  D.  SALISBURY 
of  Agriculture  University  of  Chicago 

O    TT    TTTTIVT ANN 

Superintendent  of  the  U.  S.  Coast  and  Geodetic       G-  K-  GILBERT 
Survey  U.  S.  Geological  Survey 

O.  P.  AUSTIN  AT  TP  Y  A  "M  T>  T?  T?    TVfpAT">TT^ 

Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Statistics,  Department  X  Professor  of  Meteorology,  U.  S.  Weather  Bureau 

of  Commerce  and  Labor  gan  Francisco 

DAVID  FAIRCHILD 

Agricultural    Explorer    of   the    Department    of       ALMON  GUNNISON 
Agriculture  President  St.  Lawrence  University 

ROBERT  HOLLISTER  CHAPMAN 
U.  S.  Geological  Survey 


VOL.  XIX-YEAR  1908 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  SOCIETY 

HUBBARD    MEMORIAL    HALL 

-WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 


CONTENTS 


Page- 
In  the  Savage  South  Seas ;  by  BEATRICE  GRIMSHAW i 

Studies  on  the  Rate  of  Evaporation  at  Reno,  Nevada,  and  in  the  Salton  Sink;  by  Prof. 

FRANK  H.  BIGELOW,  U.  S.  Weather  Bureau 20 

Methods  of  Obtaining  Salt  in  Costa  Rica 28 

Dr  Bell's  Man-Lifting  Kite 35, 

More  Changes  of  the  Colorado  River 52. 

Honors  for  Amundsen 55 

Recession  of  the  Glaciers  of  Glacier  Bay,  Alaska;  by  FREMONT  MORSE,  U.  S.  Coast  and 

Geodetic  Survey 75, 

The  National  Geographic  Society 7& 

Policemen  of  the  Air ;  an  account  of  the  Biological  Survey  of  the  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture ;  by  HENRY  W.  SHAW 79, 

A  Few  Thoughts  Concerning  Eugenics ;  by  ALEXANDER  GRAHAM  BELL 119, 

The  Carnegie  Institution I24 

A  Jumping  Salmon I2 

Children  of  the  World 

Ten  Years  in  the  Philippines I4I 

A  Bear  Hunt  in  Montana;  by  ARTHUR  ALVORD  STILES,  Topographer,  U.  S.  Geological 
Survey - 

A  Journey  Through  the  Eastern  Portion  of  the  Congo  State;  by  Major  P.  H.  G.  POWELL- 
COTTON  

In  the  Valley  of  the  Niger [^ 

Marking  the  Alaskan  Boundary 

A  Drowned  Empire ;  by  ROBERT  H.  CHAPMAN. 

Haiti:   A  Degenerating  Island:  the  Story  of  its  Past  Grandeur'  and  Present ' Deca'y ;"by 

Rear  Admiral  COLBY  M.  CHESTER,  U.  S.  Navy 
The  Madura  Temples;  by  J.  S.  CHANDLER. 
The  Bear  Hunt 

AEuzA  RTc'iDMorE^1  ^^  Sandals  f°r  S^  2 

• 223. 

Associate  in 


the  Geological  sur-  in'^:: 

Along  the  Old  Inca  Highway;  by  HARRIET  CHAL,MERS"ADAMS.'  '. 

Ho^e-Makmgby  the  Government;  by  C.  J.  BLANCHARD,  Statistician,'  U.'  S.'  Reclamation 

' 


to        P  '  'fi          u 

to  the  Pacific;  by  Hon.  GEORGE  C.  PERKINS.  . 

lawan  for  Homes  ;  by  H.  P.  WOOD 
fhy  Nik-ko  is  Beautiful;  by  J.  H.  DE  FORREST  '. 
Where  East  Meets  West;  by  MARIAN  C.  COFFIN 

^ 


309 
345 

f-i  °   —•—"«-,    Uj     TT.    j.  .    v^KiiiatjON  /- 

Conservation  of  Our  Natural  Resources 

The  Nome  Gold  Fields 384 

Geographical  Congress  .......  384 

New  Topographic  Maps  385 

386 


CONTENTS 


Page 

One  Season's  Game  Bag  With  the  Camera;  by  Hon.  GEORGE  SHIRAS,  3RD.  . 
Peary's  Polar  Expedition  ................................................  ™ 

Magnetic  Survey  of  the  Pacific  ...............................  ™ 

The  North  American  Indian  ............................  ^ 

Books  Received  ........................................... 

The  Magic  Mountain  ;  by  J.  N.  PATTERSON  .....................  •  •  .......  •  .......... 

Notes  on  a  Zoological  collecting  trip  to  Dutch  New  Guinea;  by  THOMAS  BARBOUR  .......  469 

Among  the  Mahogany  Forests  of  Cuba  ;  by  WALTER  D.  WILCOX  .........................  4«5 

Notes  and  Scenes  from  Korea  ............................................. 

Some  Human  Habitations  ;  by  CowER  COBB  ...........  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  ............ 

Is  Our  Noblest  Volcano  Awakening  to  New  Life  ;  by  A.  H.  SYLVESTER  ..................  5 

Further  Notes  on  Dutch  New  Guinea  ;  by  THOMAS  BARBOUR  .....  .....  ..  .  .  .  .  .  .  •  •  .  .  •  • 

The  Pacific-  the  Most  Explored  and  the  Least  Known  Region  of  the  Globe;  by  LEOPOLD 

........................  540 

BLACKMAN  .............................  •  .....  ;••  fi 

Biskra,  the  Ziban  Queen;  by  Mrs.  GEORGE  C.  BOSSON,  JR  ........................... 

Location  of  the  Sir  John  Franklin  Monument  ..................  -  ..........  •  •  • 

Some  Wonderful  Sights  of  the  Andean  F'.ghlands;  by  HARRIET  CHALMERS  ADAMS. 
As  Seen  from  a  Dutch  Window;  by  JAMES  HOWARD  GORE,  Professor  of  Mathematics,  ^ 
George  Washington  University  ................................................... 

Peasant  Life  in  the  Black  Forest  ;  by  KARL  FREDERICK  GEISER  ...........  •  £35 

How  the  World  is  Shod  ....................................................... 

Ten  Years  of  the  Peary  Arctic  Club  ;  by  HERBERT  L.  BRIDGMAN  ...............  .  ...........  «£ 

Cuzco,  America's  Ancient  Mecca  ;  by  HARRIET  CHALMERS  ADAMS  ........  •  •  •  •  •  •  009 

Cork  ......................................  ;  ..............  5Q4 

Across  Widest  Africa  ;  by  A.  HENRY  SAVAGE  LANDOR.  ...  ......  :'""'''  '«'  'c'n''''  '       '  ™ 

Conservation  League  of  America;  by  HENRY  GANNETT,  Geographer  of  U.  S.  Gel 
Comparison  of  Our  Unprotected  with  Our  Protected  Forests  ..........  .  .  .  .  .  —  •••••  '  • 

The  Ruined  Cities  of  Asia  Minor;  by  ERNEST  L.  HARRIS,  American  C  o  ^ 

Smyrna  ...........................................  .......  760 

Bulgaria,  the  Peasant  State  ................................  ^ 

Servia  and  Montenegro  ........................................  7QO 

Notes  on  Macedonia  ..............................................  o^ 

The  Oil  Treasure  of  Mexico  ;  by  RUSSELL  HASTINGS  MILLWARD  .......  •  •  ^ 

National  Geographic  Society  ..............................  gop 

In  Quaint,  Curious  Croatia  ;  by  FELIX  J.  KOCH  .......  .  .  .  ......  '.'"'''  '  gr< 

Some  Ruined  Cities  of  Asia  Minor;  by  Consul  General  ERNEST  L.  HARRIS.. 

Our  Neglected  Southern  Coast  ;  by  AwfcSD  GOLDSBOROUGH  MAYER  ........  •    » 

Scenes  from  the  land  where  everybody  dresses  in  white  .......  •••••••  ^ 

Daniel  Coit  Gilman  .........................................  .....  gg3 

Whalebone  .....................  •  •  ........................  ........  885 

An  American  South  Polar  Expedition  .......................  ggg 

National   Geographic  Society  .................................... 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Page 
3 


V    orYangg7n!'Jfrom  which 'the  intoxicating  drink  of   heFiji  Islanders  is  made. . 

Vanilla  plant  and  bean 

Drying  vanilla — Fiji 

A  Fijian  in  festival  dress. 


A  Fijian  in  Sunday  dress— Fiji •  •  •  •  —  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  • 

Infant  head-binding  to  make  the  h< 
Malekula  warrior— New  Hebrides, 


A  .Fijian  in  ounuay  urcsa — nji.  . 

Infant  head-binding  to  make  the  head  conical— New  Hebrides 

o 


The  women's  dance 

Dancing  and  singing ^ 

Bringing  out  the  mummy  from  the  "Kama!" 

Typical  idols  in  a  New  Hebrides  village • 

A  notorious  cannibal — New  Hebrides 

Poisoned  arrows 

In  the  yam  fields— New  Hebrides T3 

Shooting  fish— New  Hebrides • J4 

Tannese  scar-tattooing — New  Hebrides T5 

Looking  out  for  trouble 

The  allies  coming  in 

Bushmen  coming  to  see  a  white  child T9 

Fashions  in  Erromanga — New  Hebrides J9 

The  Salton  Sea  and  the  Salt  Creek  trestle 21 

Reno  reservoir,  tower  No.  2 • 22 

The  five  towers  used  in  the  evaporation  experiments,  Reno  reservoir 25 

Scenes  near  Reno,  and  the  experimental  towers 27 

Obtaining  salt  at  Caldera,  Costa  Rica 29 

Provided  with  wooden  spades,  the  peones  gather  the  salted  earth  into  long,  narrow  heaps .  30 

The  heaps  thus  made  and  the  low  water  at  the  distance 30 

Collecting  the  salted  earth 31 

Filtering  out  the  salt 32 

Vaporizing  the  salt  solution 33 

Weathering  the  salt 34 

Practice  drill  with  a  small  kite 35 

Views  of  the  aerodrome  shed  in  which  the  giant  man-lifting  kite,  the  Cygnet,  is  housed. .  36 

View  of  the  aerodrome  shed 37 

The  Cygnet  placed  on  board  the  raft 37 

Members  of  the  Aerial  Experiment  Association 38 

Front  view  of  the  Cygnet,  showing  the  manhole  in  the  center 39 

Another  view  of  the  giant  "Cygnet" 40 

Towing  the  giant  kite,  preparatory  to  sending  it  aloft 41 

Views  of  the  kite  in  the  air 42 

Another  view  of  the  kite  aloft 43 

Views  of  Cygnet  in  air 44 

After  the  descent — floating  on  the  water,  waiting  to  be  picked  up 45 

Picking  up  the  Cygnet 46 

The  Cygnet  safely  lifted  on  to  its  raft 46 

End  view  of  the  Cygnet 47 

The  manhole 47 

IV 


ILLUSTRATIONS  v 

Page 

Another  view  of  the  Cygnet  showing  the  manhole 48 

Front  view  of  the  raft  and  kite 49 

Towing  the  kite,  with  Lieutenant  Self  ridge  aboard CQ 

All  ready  for  the  ascent ^ 

Just  before  the  ascent -2 

Kite  with  man  aboard,  flying  at  a  height  of  168  feet 52 

Changes  in  the  estuary  of  the  Colorado  river ^ 

Captain  Roald  Amundsen 56 

Cooking  vessel  of  the  Eskimo 59 

Eskimo  toys -. 59 

Eskimo  means  of  making  fire 60 

Eskimo  encampment 61 

Eskimo  cooking  pot 66 

Monument  in  memory  of  Sir  John  Franklin 67 

Eskimo 67 

The  head  of  an  Eskimo  fishing  spear 69 

Eskimo  hunter 70 

Eskimo 71 

Coal  floating  down  the  Ohio  river 73 

Glaciers 77 

Four  common  seed-eating  birds 80 

Sparrow  hawk 81 

A  useful  bird  of  prey 82 

Cactus  wren 83 

Golden  eagle 84 

A  barred  owl ?'3 

A  monument  to  the  industry  of  barn  owls 86 

Pellets  thrown  up  by  owls 87 

Three-toed  woodpecker 88 

Clark  crow 89 

Sage  hen 90 

Ring-tailed  civet  cat 92 

Texas  wild  cat 93 

Not  dead,  but  playing  possum 94 

Common  skunk  wading  through  slush 95 

Gray  fox 96 

Coyote  pups 97 

Typical  breeding  grounds  of  coyotes 97 

A  mute  witness  to  the  destructiveness  of  Michigan  wolves 98 

Apple  tree  killed  by  rabbits 99 

Apple  tree  killed  by  field  mice 99 

Prairie  dogs  at  mouth  of  burrow I0° 

Very  young  cottontail  rabbits  in  nest IO1 

Field  mouse I02 

Sections  of  morning  glory  roots  stored  by  field  mouse IO3 

Shelter  house  on  fox  farm  in  Maine I04? 

Aspen  being  felled  by  beaver — note  size  of  chips IO5 

Beaver  dam  from  below — note  storage  pond  above  dam I05 

Hudson  bay  sable lo6 

Orange  groves  of  southern  California I07 

Elk  in  deep  snow I09 

Buffalo  in  Yellowstone  Park II0 

Twin  black  bear  cubs ..  IIJ 


vi  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 
Royal  terns  breeding  on  Battledore  Island  .............................................   112 

A  brown  pelican  colony,  Pelican  Island  reservation  ...........................  ..........   113 

California  murres  on  three  arch  rocks,  off  the  Oregon  coast  .............................   114 

Cormorants  nesting  on  three  arch  rocks  bird  reservation,  coast  of  Oregon  ...............   115 

Young  Cormorants,  Devil's  Lake,  North  Dakota  ........................................   1  16 

Salmon  caught  in  the  act  of  trying  to  leap  up  the  falls  of  the  Shinn  ......................   125, 

Fun  for  the  boys  and  girls  in  their  favorite  schoolground,  Ostre  Anlaeg,  Copenhagen, 
Denmark  .  .  ........................................................................   126 

Boys  and  girls  of  Ave  Maria  Charity  School,  Granada,  Spain  ...........................   127 

Infant  coolies  in  China  ................................................................   128 

Pupils  of  a  missionary  school  in  China  .................................................   129 

Little  Japanese  school-boys  engaged  in  a  lively  tug  of  war  ..............................   130 

Girls  under  the  trees  —  Tokio,  Japan  ....................................................   131 

A  group  of  Burmese  children  ..........................................................   132 

India  of  tomorrow  ....................................................................    133, 

A  group  of  school-girls  in  Kapiolani  Park,  Honolulu,  Hawaii  ...........................   134 

School  in  Ceylon,  showing  pupils,  teacher,  and  school-house  ............................   135, 

Javanese  at  Garoet  —  Javanese  women  and  children  .................................  ;  .  .  .   135 

West  Indian  pickaninnies,  scholars,  and  teacher  before  a  school-house  in  Jamaica  ........   137 

United  States  school  on  Indian  reservation  at  the  second  Mesa  of  the  Moki  country  ......   138- 

Meeting  at  mission  school  at  Nibunza  Bobuna  Village,  Congo  ...........................   139. 

Boys  studying  on  the  housetop  at  Assiout,  Egypt.  .  .  ....................................   I4o 

Characteristic  scene  in  Northwestern  Montana  ..................................  .   I^0, 

Typical  views  in  Northwestern  Montana  ...............................................  I52 

Pack-train  crossing  the  range  ....................................................  I53 

View  from  Kootenai  Mountain,  looking  south  .............................  I53 

Major  Powell-Cotton  with  two  of  his  pygmy  trackers  ...........  ....'. 

A  group  of  pygmies  ...........................................  \  '      g 

A  forest  giant,  with  tent  between  two  embedded  roots  ........... 

Floating  village  of  Katanga,  as  seen  from  the  shore  ........ 

Three  huts  of  the  floating  village,  Katanga  .......................  .'  .    '  '  l6l 

Wall  of  burnt  clay  surrounding  a  village  near  Timbuktu,  Africa.'.' 
Natives  near  Timbuktu,  in  the  valley  of  th  Niger  ............ 

A  young  girl,  near  Timbuktu  .......................  '     6 

'  Tl 


Niger'     U    S°Wng    Umt  day  Wal* 
Granary  in  the  valley  of  the  Niger.  ........... 

Making  cassava  bread-Saint  Vincent,'  West  Indies 
Making  tortillas-Salvador,  Central  America... 
Tortilla  market—  Guadalupe,  Mexico 
A  bread  "Wallah»-Jeypore,  India  ...'.'.'.' 
A  bakery  in  Japan  ....................... 

Two  women  grinding  at  the  mill—  Pal'esVine!  '. 

Baking  bread  in  Syria  ...........  ...............   I7° 

Bread  of  the  Orient,  Egypt,'  and  Turkey' 


bakery,  where  all  the  ingredients  are  carefully  tested.' .' ' .' .'  176 

akery,  where  the  fermentation  of  the  dough  is  developed     177 

an  American  bakery 'JL 


by  pure  air. .   179 
180 


ILLUSTRATIONS  vii 

Page 

The  Brady  Glacier :8i 

Marking  the  Alaskan  boundary jg2 

The  surface  of  the  "Hugh  Miller"  glacier ^3 

Triangulation  party  returning  from  a  trip  to  a  station  near  the  Muir  glacier 183 

View  up  Queen  inlet  toward  the  boundary  line — the  "Carroll"  glacier  shows  in  the  back- 
ground     184 

A  view  showing  how  a  surveyor  should  be  shod  who  has  much  traveling  to  do  on  ice. ...  185 

An  observing  party  climbing  a  very  steep  slope  to  a  triangulation  station 185 

Silk  sleeping  tent,  weight  about  8  pounds,  9  x  10,  showing  cots  and  sleeping  bags 186 

An  observing  party  returning  to  camp  from  a  triangulation  station  on  a  snow  field  which 

is  a  little  soft  from  the  action  of  the  sun 187 

^'Camp  diversion" 187 

Sunset  views  in  July 188 

Taking  a  swim  in  a  pool  on  the  mountain  top 189 

Scene  in  Dismal  Swamp — southern  margin,  near  Elizabeth  City,  N.  C 191 

A  well-constructed  drainage  ditch — side  slope  prevents  caving  and  erosion 192 

A  poorly  constructed  drainage  ditch — sides  caved  and  eroded 193 

Road-making  across  newly  reclaimed  tract  of  swamp  land  in  Sacramento  valley 194 

Type  of  conveyor  dredge  used  in  channel-deepening 195 

Reclaimed  Shiocton  swamp,  Wisconsin — a  crop  said  to  be  20  tons  per  acre 196 

Difficulties  encountered  in  survey  of  Sacramento  valley  (U.  S.  Geological  Survey  party)  . .  197 

Minnesota  swamp  survey  (U.  S.  Geological  Survey  party  en  route) 198 

Hand-ditching  by  contract  labor,  Holbeck's  swamp,  near  Charleston,  S.  C 198 

Topographer  at  work  in  Tule  swamp  of  Sacramento  valley,  California 199 

Cathedral  and  Union  Club,  Cape  Haitien 207 

•Citizens  of  Cape  Haitien 208 

Boys  of  Santo  Domingo 213 

Sketch  map  of  Haiti 215 

•Colonnade  of  Golden  Lily  tank,  with  paintings  of  Siva's  sports 219 

Porch  of  a  thousand  pillars — Madura 220 

Golden  Lily  tank — Madura 221 

Teppakulam  or  raft  tank — Madura 222 

Among  honest  people 223 

School  children  in  a  Swiss  town 228 

•Crossing  a  Swiss  lake 229 

"Padaung"  woman  and  child — South  Shan  States,  Burma 230 

•Our  equipage  on  the  road  to  Cuzco — Mrs.  Adams  and  the  Cholo  driver 232 

Foot-bridge  of  woven  willow  over  River  Vilcanota,  on  the  road  to  Cuzco 233 

Foot-travelers 234 

Inca  burial  tomb  and  Andean  hut  of  mud  and  thatch 234 

•Quichua  farmers 235 

Plowing  at  an  elevation  of  1 1,000  feet 235 

What  the  Quichua  farmer  lacks  in  modern  machinery  he  makes  up  in  the  decorative  head- 
dress of  his  oxen 236 

Harvesting  on  the  roof  of  the  world 237 

Gathering  fuel  for  the  home 238 

Rear  guard  of  a  llama  train 239 

Beggars 239 

'Quichua  girls  returning  from  mass 240 

A  full-blooded  Quichua. 241 

The  patient  beasts  of  burden  of  the  Andean  highland 242 

Resting  at  a  wayside  hut 243 

*"As  in  the  days  of  Ataiiualpa" 244 


viii  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 
The  decorated  leader  of  the  llama  train  ................................  .  ...............  245 

"With  heads  bowed  and  uncovered  they  stood,  as  in  the  long  ago,  greeting  their  beloved 

Cuzco,  sacred  city  of  the  sun  ...............................................  •  ........  246 

A  herd  of  llamas  off  duty.    The  pyramid  is  a  mirage  ...................................  247 

Farming  in  the  world's  roof  garden  ....................................................  248 

Ruins  of  the  Temple  of  Viracocha  .....................................................  249 

Pumping  barge  of  the  U.  S.  Reclamation  Service  —  Williston  project,  North  Dakota  ......  251 

Cattle  knee  deep  in  alfalfa  —  Garden  City  project,  Kansas  ...............................  254 

Blanchard  Falls—  Minidoka  project  ....................................................  255 

In  Gunnison  canyon  —  Uncompahgre  project,  Colorado  ..................................  256 

Raising  hogs  in  the  Klamath  valley—  Klamath  project,  Oregon  ..........................  259 

View  showing  cultivated  land  in  the  lower  valley  of  the  Yakima  river,  Washington  ......  260 

Pear  tree  in  orchard  of  J.  H.  Forman  and  picture  of  owner  —  near  Parker,  Washington, 

under  Sunnyside  canal  ........  ......................................................  261 

Yakima  maiden  picking  hops  —  Yakima  project,  Washington  ............................  262* 

One  acre  of  Concord  grapes  in  orchard  of  William  Squire,  near  Zillah,  Washington  ......  266 

Remains  of  a  vanished  race  ...........................................................  269 

The  capitol  grounds  from  the  southwest  corner  of  the  capitol  building,  Phoenix,  Arizona..  270 
Baled  hay  storage  building  at  the  Chandler  ranch,  6  miles  south  of  Mesa,  Arizona  .......  271 

Cholla  cactus  on  the  desert  between  government  wells  and  desert  wells,  Roosevelt  road- 

Salt  river  project  ...................................................................  273 

Building  homes  on  the  desert  in  anticipation  of  the  opening  of  the  government  works- 

Salt  River  project  ......................................................  274 

Pure-blooded  Apache  laborers  constructing  a  road  through  the  desert—  Salt  River  project, 

Arizona  ................................................................  2~- 

The  top  of  Fish  Creek  Hill,  Arizona  ........................  L  .".."..'!!!'.!!'.!!'.!!!'.  1  '.'.'.!  276 

Raising  melons  in  the  Salt  River  valley,  Arizona  .......................  \  28o 

The  raising  of  grapes  in  the  Salt  River  valley,  near  Mesa,  Arizona  ................  [  28i 

Almond  orchard  in  bloom  in  the  Salt  River  valley,  Arizona  ...............  '  282 

Date  tree  in  Salt  River  valley,  near  Mesa,  showing  the  enormous  crop  of  dates  on  'one 

Salt  River  project  .............................................. 

The  Ivy  Ranch,  near  Phoenix,  Arizona—  Salt  River  project,  Arizona  .......  '284 

Watermelons  in  young  peach  orchard  farm,  Kerman,  California  .......  '287 

The  sea  of  sand  of  the  Takla  Makan  desert  ........................  '  2gg 

The  sea  of  salt  of  the  Lop  desert  ................ 

A  Loplik  house  of  reeds  ................ 

.Loplik  women  and  children  ........... 

^olian  erosion  in  the  Lop  basin  ............... 

^giving  rivt6  ^  *  Kh°tan  ^^  *  °"  ^  ™*^  *Ummer  fe'e'in'  'ho'n^  of  the  life-  * 
The  oasis  of  Khotan  ........  ........... 

The  Crossroads  of  the  Pacific  ......  ..........  •  ..............  2Q4 

The  Monseki  of  Rinno  Temple,  Abbot  Hikosaka"  ' 
The  Wind  God  in  lemitsu's  mausoleum  .......... 

Near  leyasu's  mausoleum  ...........  ..............  302 

The  volcano  Asama  .  .  .........................  3°3- 

tsu  Hot  Springs,  beiw'een  'the'  Volcanoes'  Xsama  and  '  ' 

°O!  "p.nn8::  N°-  .:  Inide  the  bath-house  f 


.  .  ..  .. 

Kusatsu,  No.  3  ........  .....................................  3°7 

Falls  of  the  Kerka—  Dalmatia.  ........  .................................  '  3o8 

Ragusa,  Queen  of  Dalmatian  cities.  .  .  .............................  3I<> 

Peasant   carding—  Dalmatia  .........  .  ............................  3" 


ILLUSTRATIONS  ix 

Page 

Women  near  Spalato— Dalmatia 315 

Two  beaux  in  "The  Bocche" 

At  Zara— Dalmatia 3I? 

A  wayside  fountain — interior  Dalmatia 31* 

Bocche  di  Cattaro  from  the  mountain  road  to  the  capital  of  Montenegro 3 

Saint  Savina,  a  Greek  orthodox  monastery  in  the  "Bocche" 322 

A  Montenegrin  dandy 323 

A  Montenegrin  official • 324 

A  Montenegrin  bride 32~ 

Main  street,  Cettinje,  Montenegro 32C 

Canoe  on  the  Lake  of  Scodra 329 

Albanian  tribesmen  in  Scodra  bazar 33° 

Country  woman— Herzegovina 333 

Herzegovina  peasants  traveling  fourth  class 3 

Sarajevo  pack  ponies  en  route  to  market 335 

Herzegovinian  women  in  the  streets  of  Saint  Savina 33° 

Moslem  women,  Mostar  Herzegovina 33/ 

Herzgovinians  and  Bosnians  at  a  fiesta 3 

Bosnian  houses— Jesero 

Jesero,  Bosnia ~* 

Jayce,  Bosnia— a  Greek  orthodox  beauty 

Jayce,  Bosnia— Turkish  fountain 34' 

Sheep  and  Goats— Jayce 3^ 

Five  hounds  of  Mr.  John  B.  Goff's  pack 

Wolverine  climbing  a  tree  to  escape  pursuing  dogs 

Bear  climbing  a  tree  to  escape  pursuing  dogs 

The  Fish  Hawk  Creek  bear ;•••••  •  •  •  •  •. 355 

His  Imperial  Majesty  Mohammed  Ali,  Shah  of  Persia,  wearing  the  Kajar 

His  Imperial  Highness,  the  Crown  Prince  of  Persia 

The  Anderoom  palace ; ' 

Armenian  girls  of  the  province  of  Urumiah,  where  the  Persian  disturbances  were  greater 

The  High  Priest  Sayed  Abdollah  Moshtehid  of  Teheran 

An  ancient  Persian  village  near  the  Turkish  frontier 34 

A  Persian  drug  shop  and  well— Teheran • 3 

Persian  bakery  to  the  left  and  grocer's  shop  to  the  right— Teheran 

A  wagon  load  of  bread— Teheran 

A  Persian  merchant  of  second-hand  clothing— Teheran -  _•  -  - 

"Kejavehs,"  the  uncomfortable  chairs  in  which  women  and  children  travel  m  F 

A  caravansary  or  "hotel"  on  the  road  to  Shiraz,  Persia 

Crowd  of  Persian  revolutionists ; '  • ; 37A 

Crowds  of  refugees  at  the  British  legation  during  the  agitation  for  a  constitution 3 

Mohammedan  high  priests,  leaders  of  the  constitutional  revolt  in  T 

Funeral  of  a  Persian  high  priest— Teheran ''''"'' 

Copper  vessels  used  for  the  cooking  of  food  for  the  constitutional  refugees  at  t  h 

legation " " '  * '  oQ_ 

A  mountaineer  of  South  Persia,  near  Bushire,  on  the  Persian  gulf 

An  aristocratic  young  Persian  lady 3 

Ferry-boats  at  Bagdad,  on  the  Tigris 

Another  view  of  the  boats  used  at  Bagdad 

Outline  map  of  Persia 

"Merry  Widow"  hats  six  feet  in  circumference 

Wreckers  eyeing  the  Physalia  with  interest 

The  Physalia  on  a  reef 


x  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

Curly  tailed  lizard,  Cay  Verde  ........................................................  392 

Resting  after  the  hurricane  on  Upper  Gold  Ring;  an  abandoned  negro  hut  ...............  392 

General  view  of  booby  and  man-o'-war  colonies  ........................................  393 

Boobies  on  coral  reef,  75  feet  above  the  sea,  one  of  the  highest  coral  cliffs  in  the  Bahamas.  394 

Western  part  of  the  booby  colony,  on  the  elevated  portion  of  the  island  ..................  395 

Parent  boobies  covering  young  from  direct  sun  heat  of  130  degrees  .....................  396 

Nesting  booby,  with  young  displaced  in  foreground  .....................................  396 

Only  young  twin  boobies  noticed  in  700  nests  ...........................................  397 

The  parent  boobies  stand  guard  night  and  day  except  when  searching  for  food  ..........  397 

Boobies  in  flight—  note  fan-tails  .......................................................  39& 

Young  booby  in  final  gray  plumage  just  before  changing  to  adult  .......................  398 

Man-o'-war  birds  soaring  100  yards  overhead  on  motionless  wings  .......................  399 

Breeding  colony  of  man-o'-war  birds  ...................................................  400 

Young  man-o'-war  bird  at  close  range  .................................................  401 

Male  and  female  man-o'-war  birds  flying  over  sea  grape  thicket  —  note  wing  action  and 

forked  tails  .......................................................................  4°3 

Five  nests  of  man-o'-war  birds  in  a  radius  of  six  feet—  this  bird  has  but  one  young  .......  403 

Man-o'-war  bird  descending  on  nest  —  note  remarkable  forward  wing  movement  .....  i  .  .  .  404 

Female  man-o'-war  bird,  showing  extreme  extent  of  its  wing,  8  feet  from  tip  to  tip  ......  405 

A  contrast:  Old  bedraggled  cow  moose,  indifferent  to  approaching  canoe;  magnificent  bull 

moose  in  action  —  Nictau  lake  .................  .  .  .....................................  408 

Large  cow  moose  detecting  scent  from  camera  blind  —  Red  Brook  creek,  New  Brunswick.  .  409 

Bull  moose  struggling  ashore  ..................  ....  ....................................  409 

Bull  moose  taken  in  July,  1907,  and  again  by  flashlight  three  nights  later  ................  410 

An  early  foggy  morning  on  Nictau  lake,  6  a.  m.  ;  cow  moose  feeding  ....................  411 

Buck  white-tail  deer  at  New  Brunswick  trout  stream.  ..................................  411 

Daylight  —  bull  moose  swimming  so  rapidly  that  it  required  three  paddles  to  overtake 

him  (4  p.  m.)  ..............................  .  .......................................  4I2 

Flashlight—  cow  and  calf  moose—  Upper  Tobique  river,  New  Brunswick  ................  413 

Daylight—  cow  moose  photographed  at  eight  feet  from  blind  .............................  414 

Flashlight—  large  bull  moose—  Upper  Tobique  river,  New  Brunswick  ....................  417 

Third  picture  of  the  big  bull  moose  that  was  photographed  four  times  in  twenty  minutes  .  .  418 

Pair  of  young  white-tail  deer—  Tobique  river,  New  Brunswick,  July  8,  1907  .............  419 

Flashlight—  young  bull  moose  gazing  with  interest  at  approaching  jack  light—  Nictau  lake, 

New  Brunswick,  July  2,  1907  ...................................  ...  ..............  420 

Flashlight—  boat  rigged  for  night  hunting  with  cameras,  showing  flashlight  apparatus  and 

jack  lamp;  taken  1893  ...............................................................  ^2l 

A  75-pound  timber  wolf  trapped  on  a  deer  runway  near  author's  camp,  Lake  Superior, 

July  29,  1907  ............  ;  .  ,  .......  .................................................  '  ^3 

Five  hundred  forest  mushrooms  at  the  base  of  a  hard  maple,  Lake  Superior  .....  ........  .423 

A  sapsucker  making  fresh  sap  basins  in  bark,  where  it  also  catches  flies  attracted  by  the 

sweet  fluid  ;  July  26,  1907  ....................................... 

Another  view,  showing  regularity  of  sap  basins  covering  six  weeks'  use 

Mink  taking  its  own  picture  by  flashlight  by  pulling  on  a  string  baited  with  fish-White 

fish  river,  Michigan  ;  July,  1907  ................ 

Flashlight-white-tail  deer,  with  porcupine  'to  'right-July  '28,'  '1907;  '  Whiie  '  Fish'  Va'ke  ^ 
Michigan  ............................ 

Two  extremes-a  Florida  owl  and  a  Canada'j'ay  or  whiskey  "jack" 

'eerlake,  Sandy  River  district,  Newfoundland  ...........  7^ 

Testing  camera  with  thread  set  across  caribou  trail 

"'  * 


D™*W™n^00k.*e"  °W"  PlCtUreS  Several"hou"'^--NewVoundIand,"ociober  * 
Daylight-weasel,  Newfoundland  ;'  "iis  'nimbieness  makes  it  haM  'to  photogniph  \\\'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.  ™ 


ILLUSTRATIONS  xi 

Page 
Caribou  stag,  doe,  and  fawn ;  one-half  of  the  does  carry  small  horns ;  the  fawn  is  assisted 

by  the  suction  in  swimming 430 

Caribou  in  agonized  rush  to  escape  canoe 431 

Caribou  swim  slowly,  but  go  ashore  with  great  speed 431 

Caribou  in  herds  swim  compactly;  suction  helps  those  in  rear 432 

Very  large  caribou  stag,  taken  in  rough  water  and  on  a  dark  day 433 

Caribou  stag  with  symmetrical  horns  photographed  at  eight  feet;  note  beautiful  white 

collar  carried  by  stags  only 433 

Rising  flight  of  pelicans — (a)  wings  seen  at  different  angles;  (fr)  where  it  resembles  the 

Canada  goose 435 

Side  flight  of  pelicans 436 

Approaching  flight  of  pelicans 437 

A  group  of  fine  old  pelicans,  with  a  few  young  in  foreground,  all  facing  one  way 438 

About  1,000  young  pelicans  bathing  and  playing  at  water's  edge 438 

Croups  of  young  pelicans  sleeping  and  preening  themselves 439 

Young  pelican  in  "gooseflesh"  phase 440 

Pelicans  in  shadow  of  approaching  thunderstorm 441 

Pelicans  coming  from  the  ocean  to  Indian  river  with  fish  for  young 442 

Male  and  female  quail  in  orange  grove — Halifax  river,  Florida ;  April  i,  1908 443 

Catbird  eating  orange — Halifax  river,  Florida ;  April  i,  1908 444 

Brown  thrasher  approaching  orange 444 

Wild  gray  squirrels  eating  oranges — Halifax  river,  Florida ;  April  i,  1908 445 

The  Apache 449 

Chief  Garfield — Jicarilla — Apache 450 

Jicarilla — Apache  maiden 451 

Nesjaja  Hatali — Navaho 453 

Luzi— Papago >. 454 

Sunset  from  Mt.  Wilson 459 

Sea  of  fog  from  Mt  Wilson 460 

Sea  of  fog  from  Mt.  Wilson 461 

A  storm  in  the  mountains 462 

Entitled  Snow  Yucca 463 

Cottages — Mt  Wilson  in  winter 464 

Mt  Wilson  hotel  and  cottages  in  winter 465 

San  Antonio  or  "Old  Baldy"  in  winter  from  Mt.  Wilson .' 466 

Night  view  from  Mt  Wilson 467 

Papuans  among  the  little  colony  of  traders 470 

Papuan  women 472 

Papuans  near  the  mission  at  Dorey 475 

A  Papuan  of  Dorey 476 

One  of  our  best  Papuan  helpers  at  Dorey 477 

Men  of  Dorey 478 

End  view  of  a  communal  "Long  House"  near  Dorey 479 

Papuan  children 480 

Papuan  canoes  481 

.  Jobi  Island  women 482 

A  Wiak  Island  canoe 483 

Hauling  mahogany  logs  from  the  forest — Cochinos  bay,  Cuba 487 

•One  of  the  surly  men  of  Meosboendi,  Wiak  Isalnd 484 

A  field  of  corn  in  a  clearing 488 

Semi-piratical  sea  captain  of  a  trading  schooner  on  the  south  coast  of  Cuba 489 

Old  man  and  a  typical  native  house — Cochinos  bay,  Cuba 490 

'The  day  after  the  cyclone  of  October  17,  1906 — Cochinos  bay,  Cuba 493 


XII  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

A  sunset  on  Cochinos  bay,  Cuba • 495 

Map  of  Bay  of  Cochinos 497 

A  missionary's  water-carrier  in  Pyengyang,  Korea 498 

Most  of  the  carrying  in  Korea  is  done  by  men 499 

A  wayside  shrine  just  inside  the  Seven  Star  gate,  Pyengyang,  Korea 500 

A  Korean  bride  in  chair 500 

Buddhist  fish  inside  monastery  at  Hyang  San,  North  Korea 501 

A  wishing  stone 5oi 

A  Korean  lady  of  the  court 502 

Korean  father  and  two  children 503 

Stone  carving  symbolizing  long  life— Seoul,  Korea 504 

Boys  of  heathen  school,  Korea 505 

Devil  house  near  the  entrance  to  Yeng  Byen,  Korea 506 

Interior  of  devil  house 507 

Part  of  the  gallery  of  names  on  top  of  Yak  San  (mountain),  Yeng  Byen,  Korea 508 

Fisherman's  kitchen — Shackelford  Island,  North  Carolina 510 

Fisherman's  camp — Shackelford  bank,  North  Carolina 511 

Seminole  Indian  home  near  Miami,  Florida 512 

Harvest  homes  at  Gabii 513 

Goat  herder's  house  in  Texas 514 

Mt.  Hood  from  Sandy  river  bluffs,  looking  east  up  Sandy  river 516 

Relief  map  of  Mt.  Hood 518 

Climbing  Zigzag  glacier — guide  in  front  cutting  steps 522 

At  work  on  the  top 522 

Eliot  glacier,  at  northeast  side  of  Mt.  Hood 523 

Another  view  of  Eliot  glacier 524 

Eskimo  beauties  from  Godthaab,  Greenland 526 

An  early  morning  view  of  the  village  of  Kajo,  in  Humboldt  bay 528 

The  "Karriwarri"  or  sacred  house  at  Djamna 530 

A  man  of  Djamna  standing  by  the  bow  of  his  canoe 531 

Men  of  Djamna  Island 532 

The  sacred  structures  of  Tobadi,  Humboldt  Bay 

The  great  "Karriwarri"  at  the  village  of  Tobadi,  in  Humboldt  Bay 

Scene  in  Humboldt  Bay 

Men  of  Tobadi  Village '.'.'. ...... ..............  536 

Trading  with  the  natives :  Humboldt  Bay 

Papuans  ferrying  the  writer  from  Tobadi  Village  to  Metu  Debi  Island,  in  Humboldt  Bay*  538 

Women  going  calling  along  a  village  street  of  Tobadi c^g 

A  village  street  in  Tobadi,  Humboldt  Bay [ 

Papuan  guides '.'.'.'.[ 

An  archer  at  Humboldt  Bay,  using  a  fish  arrow 

The  very  rare  Proechidna,  or  egg-laying  ant-eater ' .  '  ?L 

A  Papuan  tree  kangaroo  climbing:  found  only  in  forests  of  New  Guinea' 

A  cassowary  at  Sorong,  New  Guinea 

Leaving  New  Guinea ^44 

Sketch  map  of  the  Pacific  Islands 

Native  assembly  house:  Bora,  Society  Islands'.'. 

Mabu,  a  village  in  the  Fiji  Islands 

On  Kambara  Island,  Fiji 55° 

Native  fighting  man:  Moen  Island,  Caroline  Islands" 

Mual  district  and  two  of  his  wives,  Caroline  Island^ .' 

Men  of  Ponapi  Island,  Caroline  Islands 

Daughters  of  Chief  Nakiroro,  Gilbert  group!. 

558 


ILLUSTRATIONS  xin 

Page 

Native  women  and  children :  Tongufali  village,  Ellis  group 559 

House  of  Johnnie  Toga,  Vavu  Island,  Tonga  group 560 

Native  princess  "Mele" — Niue  Island,  Tonga  group 561 

Native  child,  Low  Archipelago 562 

Sketch  map  of  Algeria. t 564 

Zouaves  at  Setif 565 

Ships  of  the  desert 566 

On  the  road  to  Biskra 567 

Looking  across  the  desert  on  the  route  to  Biskra 578; 

A  canyon  in  the  outskirts  of  Biskra 571 

In  the  palm  gardens :  Biskra 572 

Gossiping  on  a  street  corner  :  Biskra 573 

The  horseless  plough 574 

The  roads  about  Biskra  have  a  biblical  atmosphere 575 

Outside  a  cafe :  Biskra 576 

A  rest  before  the  desert  journey 576 

A  typical  barber  shop :  the  open  street 577 

Street  scene  in  Biskra 578 

An  Ouled-Nail :  Biskra 578 

A  seller  of  bread 579 

An  Ouled-Nail 579 

A  happy  family :  Biskra 580 

Dancing  girls  :  Biskra 580 

A  war  lord  of  the  desert 581 

Rapid  transit  is  not  essential  in  Biskra 581 

A  street  crowd :  Biskra 582 

The  market  place  :  Biskra ,. 583 

Playing  marbles :  Biskra 584 

A  teacher  administering  discipline  to  a  pupil  by  rapping  his  hands :  Biskra 585 

Gathering  the  dates 586 

A  rivulet  of  muddy  water  which  flows  through  the  main  street  of  Sidi-okba 588 

Bedouin  encampments  passed  on  the  road  from  Biskra  to  Sidi-Okba 591 

The  fourth  posture  of  the  devout  Mussulman  at  prayer 592 

He  bows  to  the  ground  three  times 593 

The  fruit  that  looks  like  a  watermelon  is  in  reality  a  lemon 594 

Qahatika  water  girl 595 

Liliental's  gliding  machine 596 

A  dorway  carved  out  of  a  single  block  of  stone  in  the  pre-Incasic  temple  at  Tiahuanaco, 

Peru 598 

In  the  ruins  of  the  oldest  city  in  the  new  world,  Tiahuanaco 599 

Ruins  of  the  temple,  Tiahuanaco 600 

Women  of  the  Tiahuanaco 600 

Women  of  the  Tiahuanaco  of  today 601 

The  village  band,  Tiahuanaco 602 

Gaudy  hats  worn  by  the  men  of  Tiahuanaco  at  fiestas 603 

Sailing  on  the  lake  of  the  clouds 605 

Sketch  map  showing  location  of  Lake  Titicaca  and  Andean  Highlands 606 

Constructing  a  balsa  of  reeds  on  an  islet  of  Lake  Titicaca 606 

Ferrying  mules  in  the  reed  boats 607 

Embarking  an  a  balsa 608 

View  of  a  part  of  the  deck  of  a  balsa 608 

Ferry-boats  waiting  for  a  fare,  Lake  Titicaca 609 

On  the  trail  to  the  valley  of  Yucay,  bordered  by  Spanish  broom 6n 


xiv  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

The  valley  of  Yucay 612 

Ruins  of  the  fortress  of  Ollentayrambo,  in  the  valley  of  Yucay 614 

Ruins  of  the  fortress  of  Pisac.  Astronomical  stone,  Pisac.  In  the  valley  of  Yucay 615 

Types  seen  in  the  valley  of  Yucay,  Peru 616 

A  flock  of  alpacas,  seen  in  the  valley  of  Yucay b 617 

Quaint  costumes  of  village  girls  on  the  wharf  beside  the  fishing  boats,  Zuyder  Zee 623 

Neighbors,  big  and  little,  in  a  tidy  street  of  a  Dutch  town 626 

Picturesque  and  thrifty  Dutch  country  women  with  milk  pails  balanced  on  wooden  yokes.  631 

A  hamlet  in  the  Black  Forest 636 

A  typical  Black  Forest  vale  in  June 637 

A  main  forest  road  and  road  mender 639 

A  wayside  hut  in  the  forest  for  the  protection  of  forest  workmen  and  travelers 640 

A  nursery  in  the  Black  Forest 641 

A  typical  Black  Forest  home 642 

The  village  smith's  wife,  with  five  of  her  fourteen  children 643 

A  corner  in  the  living  room.  The  curtains  enclose  the  bed 644 

Women  on  their  way  to  work  in  the  forest 645 

On  the  road  to  the  hay  field 645 

The  main  street  of  Baiersbronn,  in  the  Black  Forest 647 

The  celebration  at  Mitteltal 648 

High  leather  boots  worn  in  Russia 650 

An  out-door  shoe  factory  in  France 651 

A  Medieval  style  of  shoe  still  in  use 652 

Red  leather  shoes  with  huge  pompons,  emphasizing  the  up-turned  toes  worn  by  the 

Queen's  guards  in  Athens 653 

A  street  of  shoe  stores  in  Athens 654 

A  Chinese  shoe  stall  in  a  city  market , 655 

Tiny  shoes  of  fine  kid  and  silk  embroidery  worn  by  Chinese  ladies  of  the  upper  classes  -in 

Canton 656 

Probably  the  oddest  shoes  in  the  world 657 

Bargain  sale  of  Japanese  clogs  and  sandals  at  a  shop  in  Tokyo 658 

Departments  of  one  of  the  largest  high-grade  shoe  manufactories  in  the  United  States ....  659 

Footgear  of  ancient  cliff-dwellers,  found  in  Arizona 660 

Commander  Peary's  ship,  the  "Roosevelt" 662 

The  President  bidding  "God  Speed"  to  the  intrepid  crew  of  the  "Roosevelt". . .: 665 

Commander  Peary  and  Herbert  L.  Bridgman,  saying  farewell  aboard  the  "Roosevelt". .  . .  667 

Statue  of  Manco  Capac,  the  emperor  who  founded  Cuzco 670 

Remains  of  the  palace  of  the  first  Inca  Manco  Capac 671 

A  mountain  trail  overlooking  the  valley  of  Cuzco 672 

A  Cuzco  street  scene,  showing  old  Spanish  balcony:  Note  llamas  rolling  in  the  dust 673 

Near  Cuzco 674 

Familiar  faces  in  Cuzco 675 

A  fountain  in  Cuzco 676 

The  Plaza,  Cuzco,  showing  a  procession  from  the  Cathedral 677 

The  original  virgin  of  Cuzco 678 

A  stationary  shrine  in  a  Cuzco  street 679 

A  religious  procession  in  Cuzco 680 

Twelve-sided  stone  in  Cuzco 6gj 

A  street  of  Cuzco 5g2 

A  view  of  the  fortress  of  Sacsahuaman 683 

A  view  of  one  of  the  salients  of  the  fortress  of  Sacsahuaman .684 

Seats  of  the  Incas  overlooking  Sacsahuaman,  Cuzco,  carved  out  of  solid  rock 685 

Gathering  fuel 


ILLUSTRATIONS  xv 

Page 

Guichuas  :  last  of  the  Incas 537 

A  poncho  weaver  of  Cuzco 688 

Cork  oaks  partially  stripped  of  the  valuable  bark :  Almorima,  Spain 690 

Boiling  the  green  bark — lifting  a  batch  from  the  vat:  the  cord  industry  at  Almoraima, 

Spain 691 

The  stock-yard  at  Almoraima,  Spain,  where  piles  of  bark  await  curing  and  bailing 692 

Adem,  the  author's  faithul  Somali 695 

Guests  on  their  way  to  Emperor  Menelik's  lunch  party  for  7,980  people 697 

Galla   woman ;    Abyssinia 699 

A  typical  high  official  of  Abyssinia 700 

Woman's  market  in  the  Yambo  country 701 

Stampeding    Nuer    women 703 

The  long-legged  people — Nuer  men  and  women 704 

Author's  three  pet  ostriches,  and  leper  camp-follower 705 

Sometimes  a  small  fish  is  caught  on  the  Nile ;  sometimes  not  so  small 707 

Ivory  on  the  river  Chinko 708 

Yacoma  crew  in  author's  canoe  on  the  river  Mbomu 709 

Tongti  with  hair  ornamentations  of  beads,  Congo  Free  State 710 

The  Sultan  of  Bongasso  and  his  wives 711 

Rubber  being  brought  in  a  Societe  des  Sultanats  (Bongasso),  French  Congo 712 

The  best  dancer  on  the  Ubangi :  Banzyville,  Congo  Free  State 713 

Cannibals  with  wonderful  bead  decorations  on  the  hair :  Congo  Free  State 714 

The  longest  canoe   (7i*/2  feet)   on  the  Ubangi 715 

Bananas  being  conveyed  by  native  children  into  the  Congo  Free  State  post  of  Banzyville. .  716 

Women  dancing  in  the  Congo  Free  State Ji? 

Cannibal  dancers  in  Congo  Free  State 718 

Fisher  women  on  the  Ubangi,  Congo  Free  State 719 

Picturesque  cannibals :  Sango  tribe 720 

A   beauty   competition 721 

Mandja  women,  showing  their  method  of  carrying  the  baby 722 

Women  with,  elongated  lips :   Shari   river 723 

Women  with  elongated  lips   (profile) 724 

Women  on  the  Shari  river,  showing  extension  of  lips  at  various  ages 725 

Woman  of  the  Lower  Shari :  two  wooden  disks  were  inserted  in  the  lips 726 

Tuaregs  with  their  typical  face  screens 727 

Great  mud  barns  for  storing  grain  on  the  Upper  Niger 728 

Headdress  of  Fulbeh  women  on  the  Niger 729 

Caravan  entering  Timbuctu 73° 

A  Moor  of  Timbuctu 73* 

A  woman  of  Timbuctu 732 

Timbuctu  children 733 

A  girl 733 

A  street  in  Djenne 734 

Djenne :  Timbuctti's  sister  city 735 

The  olive  orchard  beneath  which  the  city  of  Tralles  lies  buried 743 

A  limekiln  among  the  ruins  of  Tralles 744 

A  typical  plowman  of  Asia  Minor 747 

A  view  inside  the  theatre,  Hierapolis 74& 

The  cascades  at  Hierapolis 75° 

Another  view  of  the  cascades 7 

The  baths  at  Hierapolis 7 

Hierapolis :  the  mineral  springs 754 

City  of  the  dead 75<S 


xvi  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

Wandering  shepherds  of  Asia  Minor 757 

Waiting  for  a  train :  Asia  Minor 759 

Bulgarian  Infantry 761 

Counting  animals  for  military  service :  Bulgaria 762 

Scene  in  the  market  place  of  Sofia,  the  capital  of  Bulgaria 763 

A  Bulgarian  peasant 764 

Priest  and  peasant :  Bulgaria 765 

Bulgarian  soldiers 766 

A  corner  of  the  monastery  at  Rilo 767 

In  the  courtyard  of  the  Rilo  Monastery 767 

On  the  road  near  Plevna,  Bulgaria 768 

Scene  in  a  Bulgarian  village 768 

Scene  in  Sofia 769 

A  Bulgarian  funeral 770 

Dancing  the  Kolo,  the  Bulgarian  dance 771 

A  Bulgarian  belle  in  her  garden 772 

Servian  girls 774 

Servian  peasants 775 

A  gipsy  in  Servia 775 

The  metropolitan  on  coronation  day :  Belgrade,  Servia 776 

A  prince  of  Montenegro 777 

A  Servian 778 

Montenegrin  soldiers 778 

Tower  of  Skulls,  Servia 779 

Well-to-do  citizens  of  Belgrade,  the  capital  of  Servia 780 

Herders  at  Cettinge,  the  capital  of  Montenegro - 780 

Montenegrins  at  Cettinge 781 

Servian  women  at  Belgrade 782 

Turkish  women  at  Herzegovina 782 

Street  scene  in  southern  Herzegovina 783 

Searching  employees  at  a  government  tobacco  factory,  Sarajevo,  Bosnia 784 

Water  "flasks"  for  sale  at  Mostar,  Herzegovina 785 

Veiled  women  out  walking :  Mostar,  Bosnia 786 

A  Roman  bridge  at  Mostar,  Herzegovina 787 

A  corner  in  a  Moslem  cemetery :  Bosnia 787 

Merrymakers  in  Bosnia 788 

Turks  in  Bosnia 788 

A  citizen  of  Bosnia 789 

A  Trappist  monk :  Bosnia 789 

A  Greek  of  Saloniki,  European  Turkey 79° 

Selling  pomegranates,  Saloniki 791 

A  water-seller :  Saloniki 791 

An  old  tower  of  Saloniki 792 

A  street  scene  in  Adrianople,  European  Turkey 792 

Christian  women  of  Saloniki 793 

Village  scene  in  Macedonia 793 

Greek  Orthodox  priests  of  Monastir,  Macedonia 794 

The  Turkish  butcher :  Saloniki 795 

The  Macedonian 796 

Albanian  recruits  for  the  Sultan's  bodyguard 797 

Mohammedan  women  of  European  Turkey 798 

Map  of  southeastern  Europe 799 

Making  Turkish  coffee 800 

A  typical  Turk 801 


ILLUSTRATIONS  xvii 

Page 

Asiatic  soldiers  of  the  Turkish  Army  in  Macedonia 802 

Mammoth  oil  gusher  on  fire  at  San  Geronimo,  Mexico 804 

A  single  chrysanthemum  plant  with  96  blossoms :  Japan 806 

Figures  of  men  with  chrysanthemum  plants  trained  to  grow  as  clothing  for  their  persons..  807 

Bound  for  the  market :  Agram,  Croatia 810 

A  stall  in  the  market  of  Agram,  Croatia 810 

Scenes  in  the  market  of  Agram,  Croatia 810 

Peasants  at  Agram,  Croatia 812 

Petticoats  seen  at  the  market  of  Agram,  Croatia 813 

A  church  of  Agram 814 

A  peasant's  home  in  Croatia 815 

A  barn  in  Croatia 815 

Fishing  folk  on  the  Adriatic 816 

Drying  sardines,  near  Fiume,  Croatia 817 

Maraschino  leaves:  Zara,  Dalmatia,  where  the  famous  Maraschino  cordial  is  made 818 

On  the  market :  Agram,  Croatia \ 818 

In  the  Austro-Hungarian  province  of  Dalmatia 819 

Perhaps  the  smallest  cap  on  earth.     Often  a  mere  disc  of  red  cloth  the  size  of  a  dollar: 

in  Dalmatia 820 

The  melon  market  in  southern  Dalmatia 821 

Scene  in  the  macaroni  factory 822 

A  church  parade  for  rain  in  a  drought :  Zara,  Dalmatia 822 

The  hazel  gatherers  of  Rovigno.    These  nuts  are  world-renowned 823 

A  shop  at  Spalato.     Inside  Diocletian's  palace  of  305  A.  D 823 

A  gipsy's  hut  and  family 824 

Inside  a  gipsy  hut 825 

Gipsy  men 825 

Treading  the  wash :  Croatia 826 

Slovak  peasants  in  Croatia 826 

Washing  in  the  Dobra  :    Croatia 827 

Peasant  Boys  :    Croatia. '. 828 

On  the  market :  Pola,  Croatia 829 

At  Ogulin,   Croatia 830 

At  work  in  the  salt  beds :  Capodistria 831 

Salting  it  down  between  the  lagoons :  Capodistria,  Austria 831 

'Good  types  in  Croatia 832 

Emigrants  at  Fiume  ready  to  leave  for  the  United  States 832 

Bird's-eye  view  of  southern  part  of  Priene,  showing  the  winding  meander  in  the  plain 835 

Turkish  town  of  Sokia,  near  Smyrna 836 

•Camel  drivers  unloading  cargo  at  a  station,  near  Smyrna,  Asia  Minor 837 

Mitylene :  The  castle  as  viewed  from  the  southern  harbor 838 

Mitylene :  Castle  Mole  at  the  entrance  of  the  harbor 839 

Mitylene :  Public  road  through  an  olive  orchard 840 

'Scene  on  the  quay  of  Mitylene 841 

:Sack  menders  at  work :  Smyrna 842 

Washing  for  gold :   Asia  Minor 843 

Ephesus :  Excavated  street  leading  to  the  library 844 

Ephesus :  The  double  church,  western  section 845 

'Street  in  Magnesia :  Roman  barracks  on  either  side 848 

The  great  theatre  at  Miletus 850 

One  end  of  the  theatre  at  Miletus 851 

Colophon :  Well-preserved  tomb  in  the  Necropolis.     Type  of  Zaptieh  or  Turkish  mounted 

police 852 

Type  of  Greek  shepherd  near  Colophon 853 


xviii  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

Herd  of  goats  on  a  farm  near  ancient  Colophon 854 

The  way  licorice  root  is  brought  to  a  station  in  the  Meander  valley 855 

Greek  school  children  and  their  teachers  in  Aidin,  interior  of  Asia  Minor 856 

Young  loggerhead  turtles  just  after  hatching :  Loggerhead  Key,  Florida 860 

The  most  northerly  grove  of  palmettoes,  Smith  Island,  Cape  Fear,  North  Carolina 861 

Live  oak  at  Southport,  North  Carolina 862 

The  sea  destroying  the  forest :  Coast  of  Florida 863 

The  o^l  Spanish  fort,  Matanzas  Inlet,  Florida 864 

Sand  dune  overwhelming  a  forest 865 

Sand  shapes  sculptured  by  the  wind :  Fernandina,  Florida 866- 

Ledges  of  Coquina  rock  at  Anastasia  Island,  Florida 867 

A  "norther"  on  the  Florida  coast 870 

An  old  seagrape  on  Elliott's  Key,  Florida 871 

A  typical  church  of  the  thatched  roof  type  at  Syo  Got,  Korea 872- 

Nurse  girls  in  Korea 872 

All  plowing  is  done  with  bulls  in  Korea 875. 

Hay  carts  in  Korea , 873 

Woman  weaving :  Korea 874 

Delivery  wagon  in  Korea 874 

Woman  unwinding  thread  to  put  in  loom :  Korea 875 

Woman  starching  thread  and  preparing  it  for  loom :  Korea 876 

A  candy  boy :  Korea 877 

Two  Christian  grandfathers,  aged  78  and  80 :  Korea 877 

Bundles  of  whalebone  as  received  at  the  factory 878: 

Scene  at  the  whaling  station,  Sechar,  on  the  west  coast  of  Vancouver  Island 879^ 

A  "Yucca"  seen  on  the  slopes  of  Mount  Wilson,  California 880 

The  late  Daniel  Coit  Gilman 88 1 

A  Bulgarian  bride  and  groom 882 

Malays  in  native  costume :  Singapore 884 

A  Tamil  bride  and  groom :  Singapore 885 

Chinese  coolie  women  who  work  in  the  tin  mines  of  the  *Malay  peninsula 886 

Chinese  pepper  plantation :  Malay  peninsula 887 


WASHINGTON,  D.    C. 

PRESS  OF  JUDD   &  DETWEH.ER,  INC. 

1908 


VOL.  XIX,  No.  i 


WASHINGTON 


JANUARY,  1908 


THE 

an 


IN   THE  SAVAGE   SOUTH   SEAS 


BY  BEATRICE  GRIMSHAW 


Miss  Grimshaw  is  an  enterprising  young  English  woman  who  recently  passed 
several  years  in  Fiji  and  the  New  Hebrides  on  a  search  for  good  opportunities 
for  investment.  She  explored  many  unknown  sections  of  these  islands  and  has 
written  a  delightful  narrative  of  her  travels  and  experiences,  "Fiji  and  Its  Pos- 
sibilities." The  following  article  is  abstracted  from  this  book,  and  is  printed 
here  through  the  courtesy  of  the  publishers,  Messrs  Doubleday,  Page  &  Com- 
pany of  New  York,  by  whom  all  the  extracts  and  illustrations  ~are  copyrighted. 


FIJI  is  a  British  colony,  situated  in 
the  southwest  Pacific,  lying  be- 
tween the  1 5th  and  22d  parallels 
of  south  latitude  and  between  157  east 
and  177  west  longitude.  It  consists  of 
155  islands,  with  a  total  area  of  7,400 
square  miles.  Most  of  the  land  is  con- 
tained in  the  two  great  islands  of  Viti 
Levu  (Great  Fiji)  and  Vanua  Levu 
(Great  Land),  which  account  for  4,112 
and  2,432  square  miles  respectively. 
These  two  islands  are  exceptionally  well 
wooded  and  watered,  and  could,  it  is  said, 
support  three  times  the  population  of  the 
whole  group.  Viti  Levu  is  in  every  way 
the  most  important  island  in  the  archi- 
pelago. It  contains  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment, the  principal  harbors,  all  the  roads, 
and  much  the  greater  part  of  the  colony's 
trade.  There  is  one  town  in  the  group 
besides  Suva — Levuka,  the  capital  of 
former  days,  on  the  small  island  of 
Ovalau. 

The  climate  is  certainly  hot,  though  the 
thermometer   does   not   rise   to   anv   ex- 


traordinary heights.  During  the  three 
hottest  months — January,  February,  and 
March — the  highest  shade  temperature 
ranges  between  90°  and  94°  Fahr.,  and 
the  lowest  between  67°  and  72°,  roughly 
speaking.  In  the  cooler  months  of  June, 
July,  and  August,  59°  and  89°  are  the 
usual  extremes.  The  air  is  moist,  as  a 
rule,  and  in  Suva,  at  all  events,  one  may 
safely  say  that  a  day  without  any  rain  is 
almost  unknown.  On  the  northern  side 
of  Viti  Levu  the  climate  is  a  good  deal 
drier  and  in  consequence  less  relaxing. 
Dysentery  is  fairly  common,  but  there  is 
no  fever  to  speak  of,  and  the  climate,  on 
the  whole,  is  considered  healthful.  Mos- 
quitoes are  so  troublesome  that  most  of 
the  better  class  of  private  houses  have  at 
least  one  mosquito-proof  room,  with 
doors  and  windows  protected  by  wire 
gauze. 

As  we  pass  down  the  main  street  of 
the  capital,  the  curious  mixture  of  the 
population  is  very  noticeable — whites, 
half-castes,  Samoans,  Indians,  Chinese, 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


and,  more  conspicuous  than  any,  the 
Fijians  themselves — tall,  magnificently 
built  people  of  a  color  between  coffee  and 
bronze,  with  stiff,  brush-like  hair,  trained 
into  a  high  "pompadour,"  clean  shirts 
and  smart  short  cotton  kilts,  and  a  general 
aspect  of  well-groomed  neatness.  They 
do  not  look  at  all  like  "savages"  and, 
again,  they  have  not  the  keen,  intellectual 
expression  of  the  Indians  or  the  easy 
amiability  of  the  Samoan  type  of  coun- 
tenance. They  are  partly  Melanesian, 
partly  Polynesian  in  type,  and  they  form, 
it  is  quite  evident,  the  connecting  link  be- 
tween Eastern  and  Western  Pacific. 

East  of  Fiji,  life  is  one  long,  lotus- 
eating  dream,  stirred  only  by  occasional 
parties  of  pleasure,  feasting,  love-making, 
dancing,  and  a  very  little  gardening  work. 
Music  is  the  soul  of  the  people,  beauty 
of  face  and  movement  is  more  the  rule 
than  the  exception,  and  friendliness  to 
strangers  is  carried  almost  to  excess. 
Westward  of  the  Fijis  lie  the  dark, 
wicked,  cannibal  groups  of  the  Solo- 
mons, Banks,  and  New  Hebrides,  where 
life  is  more  like  a  nightmare  than  a 
dream;  murder  stalks  openly  in  broad 
daylight,  people  are  nearer  to  monkeys 
than  human  beings  in  aspect,  and  music 
and  dancing  are  little  practiced  and  in 
the  rudest  possible  state. 

In  Fiji  itself  the  nameless,  dreamy 
charm  of  the  eastern  islands  is  not;  but 
the  gloom,  the  fevers,  the  repulsive  people 
of  the  west  are  absent  also.  Life  is 
rather  a  serious  matter  for  the  Fijian,  on 
the  whole ;  he  is  kept  in  order  by  his 
chiefs  and  by  the  British  government, 
and  has  to  get  through  enough  work  in 
a  year  to  pay  his  taxes ;  also,  if  the  sup- 
ply of  volunteers  runs  short,  he  is  liable 
to  be  forcibly  recruited  for  the  armed 
native  constabulary,  and  this  is  a  fate  that 
oppresses  him  a  good  deal — until  he  has 
accustomed  himself  to  the  discipline  of 
the  force,  when  he  generally  makes  an 
excellent  soldier.  But,  all  in  all,  he  has 
a  pleasant  time,  in  a  pleasant,  productive 
climate,  and  is  a  very  pleasant  person 
himself,  hospitable  in  the  highest  degree, 
honest,  good-natured,  and  clever  with 


his  hands,  though  of  a  less  highly  intel- 
lectual type  than  the  Tongan  or  the 
Samoan. 

A     MARVELLOUS     TRANSFORMATION 

The  whole  penal  apparatus  is  one 
gigantic  jest,  and  is  regarded  as  such  by 
most  of  the  whites  and  not  a  few  of  the 
natives. 

To  begin  with,  there  is  hardly  any  real 
crime,  what  there  is  being  furnished 
chiefly  by  the  Indian  laborers  employed 
on  the  estates  of  the  Colonial  Sugar  Re- 
fining -Company.  The  Fijians  them- 
selves, though  less  than  two  generations 
removed  from  the  -wild  and  wicked  days 
of  the  Thakombau  reign,  are  an  ex- 
tremely peaceable  and  good-natured 
people.  In  the  fifties  and  sixties,  and 
even  later,  murder,  torture,  and  cannibal- 
ism were  the  chief  diversions  of  a  Fijian's 
life,  and  the  power  of  working  one's 
self  into  a  more  violent  and  unrestrained 
fit  of  rage  than  any  one  else  of  one's 
acquaintance  was  an  elegant  and 
much-sought-after  accomplishment.  This 
change,  effected  largely  by  the  work  of 
the  missionaries,  but  also  by  the  civiliz- 
ing influences  of  the  British  government 
and  of  planters  and  traders  innumerable,. 
is  most  notable.  Nothing  can  be  more 
amiable  and  good-natured  than  the  Fijian 
of  today;  no  colored  citizen  in  all  the 
circle  of  the  British  colonies  is  less  in- 
clined to  crime. 

Yanggona  (the  "kava"  of  the  eastern 
Pacific)  is  the  universal  drink  of  Fiji. 
It  is  the  hard,  woody  root  of  a  handsome 
bush  (the  Piper  m'ethysticum)  which 
grows  freely  in  the  mountains.  The 
Fijians  prepare  the  root  by  grating  or 
pounding,  pour  water  over  the  pounded 
mass,  and  strain  it  through  a  wisp  of 
bark  fiber.  The  resulting  drink  looks 
like  muddy  water  and  tastes  much  the 
same,  with  a  flavor  of  pepper  and  salt 
added.  One  soon  gets  to  like  it,  however, 
and  drunk  in  moderation  it  is  extremely 
refreshing  and  thirst-quenching.  The 
Fijians  do  not  drink  moderately,  I  re- 
gret to  say;  they  often  sit  up  all  night 
over  their  yanggona,  drinking  until  they 


THE  SAVAGE  SOUTH  SEAS 


THE  VILLAGE  PLATE,  FIJI 


A  ROOT  OF  YANGGONA  FROM   WHICH    THE    INTOXIC 
THE  FIJIAN  ISLANDERS  IS  MADE 


DRINK    OF 


These  and  following  illustrations  are  from  photographs  by  Beatrice  Grim- 
shaw,  and  are  copyrighted  by  Doubleday,  Page  &  Co.,  1907 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


VANILLA  PLANT  AND  B^AN 

are  stupefied  and  sleepy  and  quite  unable 
to  walk,  for  yang-gona  taken  in  excess 
paralyses  the  leg^  for  an  hour  or  two, 
even  though  the  head  may  be  quite  clear. 
The  British  government  has  forbidden 
the  ancient  method  of  preparing  the  root, 


in  which  it  was  chewed  and  spat  out  into 
the  bowl,  instead  of  being  pounded.  For 
all  that,  yanggona  is  very  frequently 
chewed  at  the  present  day,  when  no  white 
people  are  about. 

There  are  no  woods  in  the  world  more 
beautiful  and  valuable  than  the  woods 
of  Fiji,-  although  want  of  capital  and,  to 
some  extent,  want  of  enterprise  has  pre- 
vented their  becoming  widely  known. 
"Bua-bua,"  the  boxwood  of  the  Pacific, 
is  very  common  and  grows  to  an  immense 
size.  It  weighs  80  pounds  to  the  cubic 
foot,  is  very  hard,  and  most  durable. 
The  "cevua,"  or  bastard  sandalwood,  a 
strong-scented,  very  durable  wood,  grows 
freely  in  logs  one  foot  and  two  feet  in 
diameter ;  and  the  real  sandalwood  is  also 
found,  though  not  plentifully.  Another 
useful  wood  is  "vesi,"  which  grows  two 
and  three  feet  in  diameter.  It  is  much 
like  teak — hard,  heavy,  and  extremely 
lasting  in  the  ground  or  out  of  doors ;  it 
is  also  rich-colored  and  very  easily 
polished.  The  "dakua"  is  one  of  the 
most  valuable  woods;  it  much  resembles 
the  New  Zealand  kauri  pine  and  grows 
to  a  large  size,  sometimes  six  and  seven 
feet  in  diameter.  It  contains  a  great  deal 
of  gum,  and  quantities  of  this  can  be 
taken  out  of  the  ground  wherever  a  tree 


DRYING  VANIU,A, 


THE  SAVAGE  SOUTH  SEAS 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


THE  SAVAGE  SOUTH  SEAS 


has  been.  The  timber  is  useful  for 
almost  any  purpose.  The  "yaka"  might 
be  called  the  rosewood  of  the  Pacific,  if 
it  did  not  also,  in  some  degree,  resemble 
mahogany.  It  is  a  wood  of  the  greatest 
beauty,  being  exquisitely  marked  and 
veined  and  taking  a  high  polish.  This  is 
a  wood  that  certainly  should  be  known  to 
cabinet-makers,  and  no  doubt  will  be  later 
on.  The  "savairabunidamu,"  a  curious 
dark-red  wood,  is  extraordinarily  tough, 
and  can  be  steamed  and  bent  to  almost 
any  shape — a  valuable  quality.  The  "bau 
vundi"  is  a  kind  of  cedar,  very  workable 
and  most  lasting.  A  singularly  beautiful 
timber  is  the  "bau  ndina,"  which  is  deep 
rose-red  in  color,  tough  and  firm,  and 
suitable  for  engravers'  use.  Besides  these, 
there  are  more  than  sixty  varieties  of 
other  woods,  all  useful  or  beautiful  and 
most  to  be  found  in  great  profusion.  The 
quantities  available  are  very  large. 

UNCANNY   INSECTS 

The  wonderful  stick  insects  of  Fiji, 
familiar  in  all  home  museums,  are  found 
on  nearly  every  cocoanut  tree.  They  are 
very  ill-smelling,  and  squirt  a  fetid  fluid 
at  one's  eyes,  if  handled.  Leaf  insects  I 
never  saw,  except  when  the  natives 
caught  and  brought  them  to  me,  but  all 
the  guava  bushes  have  them,  although  a 
white  man's  eye  can  seldom  distinguish 
them  from  their  shelter.  They  are  most 
miraculous  and  uncanny  creatures,  ab- 
solutely leaves  endowed  with  the  power 
of  motion,  so  far  as  the  most  scrutinizing 
eye  can  see,  for  even  their  legs  and  heads 
are  a  precise  copy  of  stalks  and  small 
leaflets. 

A  certain  enterprising  man  and  his 
wife,  who  were  getting  rich  very  slowly 
indeed  keeping  a  country  store,  resolved 
to  try  whether  the  magic  bean  might 
not  do  for  them  what  it  had  done  for 
others  in  South  America  and  the  West 
Indies.  So,  in  the  face  of  some  actual 
opposition  and  continual  ridicule,  they  ex- 
pended their  little  capital  of  250  pounds 
on  the  leasing  of  eight  acres  of  warm, 
sheltered  valley  land  and  the  planting  of 
9,000  cuttings  of  good  Mexican  vanilla. 


For  three  years,  with  the  assistance  of 
one  Fijian  and  occasionally  a  couple  of 
Indians,  the  industrious  couple  kept  their 
plants  weeded  and  tended,  and  latterly 
looked  to  the  fertilizing  of  the  flowers — a 
rather  tedious  business,  done  every  day 
by  hand,  in  the  earliest  hours  of  the 
morning;  and  at  the  end  of  the  three 
years  the  reward  came,  for  the  plants 
were  yielding  splendidly  and  were  ex- 
pected to  give  about  9,000  pounds  of 
dried  beans,  bringing  an  average  price 
of  10  shillings  a  pound.  The  iruits  of 
the  first  season  were  just  coming  in  when 
I  visited  the  plantation,  and  the  lucky 
young  couple  were  counting  up  their 
gains,  present  and  future,  with  joyful 
hearts. 

SUUvEN   NEW   HEBRIDES 

The  New  Hebrides  are  not  very  far 
from  Australia — only  about  1,500  miles 
northeast  of  Sydney — and  they  are  by  no 
means  an  insignificant  group,  since  they 
extend  over  seven  hundred  miles  of  sea, 
and  some  of  the  islands  are  sixty  and 
seventy  miles  long. 

The  native  population  is  variously 
estimated  at  60,000  to  100,000,  and  there 
are  about  three  hundred  French  settlers 
and  less  than  two  hundred  British  and 
colonials,  most  of  whom  are  missionaries. 

The  islands  are  extremely  beautiful 
and  remarkably  fertile.  Three  crops  of 
maize  a  year  can  be  raised  with  little 
trouble.  Coffee  is  largely  grown,  and 
there  is  none  better  in  the  Pacific.  Mil- 
let, for  broom-making,  grows  readily  and 
pays  well.  Copra  can  be  produced  in  the 
New  Hebrides  to  better  advantage  than 
in  any  of  the  British  Pacific  colonies,  the 
Solomons  only  excepted.  Eighty  nuts 
a  tree  is  considered  a  very  good  average 
over  the  greater  part  of  the  South  Seas. 
In  the  New  Hebrides  the  figures  I  re- 
ceived seemed  almost  beyond  belief,  but, 
even  allowing  for  much  exaggeration,  it 
seems  certain  that  the  average  yearly  crop 
of  nuts  must  be  quite  twice  as  large  as  in 
Fiji,  the  Cook  Islands,  or  Tonga.  I  saw 
more  than  one  tree  that  had  three  hun- 
dred nuts  at  once  upon  it  (as  I  was  in- 


8 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


WARRIOR,    NEW    HEBRIDES 


THE  SAVAGE  SOUTH  SEAS 


THE:  WOMEN'S  DANCE 


DANCING  AND  SINGING 
SCENES  IN   NEW  HEBRIDES 


NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


BRINGING   OUT   TH£    MUMMY    FROM    THE}    "HAMAI,"    (SEE  PAGE   17) 


THE  SAVAGE  SOUTH  SEAS 


I  2 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


THE  SAVAGE  SOUTH  SEAS 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


SHOOTING  FISH,   NEW   HEBRIDES 


formed ;  I  did  not  count  them,  since  that 
would  have  involved  going  up  the  tree 
with  a  paint-pot  and  a  brush  to  mark 
them  off),  and  I  heard  of  one  or  two  that 
had  four  and  even  five  hundred. 

This  is  a  more  important  matter  than 
might  appear  at  first,  for  the  copra 
trade  is  the  true  gold-mine  of  the  Pacific. 
The  oil  that  is  expressed  from  the  dried 
nut  kernels  is  used  in  many  different  de- 
partments of  commerce,  especially  in 
soap-making,  and  the  demand  constantly 
exceeds  the  available  supply — so  much  so 
that  the  well-known  firm  of  Lever 
Brothers  have  been  buying  up  large 
tracts  of  land  in  the  British  Solomons  to 
keep  their  factories  supplied. 

The  popular  idea  of  the  New  Hebri- 
dean,  for  a  wonder,  comes  very  near  the 
truth.  He  is  supposed  to  be,  and  is, 
treacherous,  murderous,  and  vindictive. 
He  is  to  the  full  as  sensual  and  indolent 
as  the  Eastern  Islander  and  lacks  almost 
every  virtue  possessed  by  the  latter.  He 
is  almost  inconceivably  clumsy  and  stupid 
in  a  house  or  on  a  plantation  ;  almost  de- 
void of  gratitude,  almost  bare  of  natural 
affection;  ready  to  avenge  the  smallest 


slight  by  a  bloody  murder,  but  too 
cowardly  to  meet  an  enemy  face  to  face. 
Yet  there  are  a  few  things  to  say  in  his 
favor.  He  is  wonderfully  honest — so 
much  so  that  in  the  bush  districts  a  coin 
or  a  lump  of  tobacco  found  by  the  way- 
side will  never  be  appropriated  by  the 
finder,  but  will  be  placed  in  a  cleft  stick 
at  the  edge  of  the  track,  for  the  real 
owner  to  take  the  next  time  he  may 
chance  to  pass  that  way;  and  if  the  pos- 
sessor never  returns,  the  "find"  will  re- 
main where  it  has  been  placed  until  some 
white  man  or  some  "civilized"  native 
from  a  plantation  passes  by  and  appro- 
priates it. 

One  of  the  strange  things  seen  in  one 
village  was  the  collections  of  boars'  tusks 
belonging  to  the  chiefs.  These  were  dis- 
played on  a  long  stand  that  exactly  re- 
sembled eight  or  ten  bazaar  stalls  joined 
together.  There  were  some  hundreds  of 
them  placed  in  long  rows — how  many 
exactly  I  had  not  time  to  count,  as  I 
heard  that  the  canoes  were  just  coming 
home  from  the  mainland  and  I  wanted  to 
be  on  the  shore  to  meet  them.  Many  of 
the  tusks  were  curved  into  a  complete 


THE  SAVAGE  SOUTH  SEAS 


17 


double  circle.  These  are  greatly  prized, 
but  are  only  obtained  at  the  cost  of  much 
suffering  to  the  unlucky  pig  that  fur- 
nishes them.  He  is  tied  up  in  a  house 
and  never  allowed  to  wander  forth,  for 
fear  of  destroying  his  tusks.  From  each 
side  of  the  jaw  the  teeth  that  oppose  the 
tusk  and  prevent  its  going  too  far  are  re- 
moved, so  that  in  time  it  grows  right 
round  through  the  unlucky  animal's 
flesh  and  provides  a  splendid  double  arm- 
let for  the  native  who  owns  the  pig. 

In  Malekula,  one  of  the  larger  islands 
of  the  New  Hebrides,  many  a  married 
woman  was  distinguished  by  a  dark  gap 
in  the  ivory-white  teeth  of  her  upper 
jaw,  where  the  two  middle  incisors  had 
been  knocked  out  with  a  stone.  This 
extremely  unpleasant  substitute  for  the 
wedding  ring  is  found  in  various  parts  of 
Malekula.  The  operation  is  performed 
by  the  old  women  of  the  tribe,  who 
greatly  enjoy  the  revenge  they  are  thus 
enabled  to  take  on  the  younger  genera- 
tion for  tfce  injury  once  inflicted  by  their 
elders  upon  them. 

By  a  good  deal  of  worrying  and  a  little 
tobacco,  I  persuaded  the  villagers  to 
show  me  a  mummy  from  one  of  their 
"hamals,"  or  sacred  houses. 

It  appeared  to  be  the  stuffed  skin  of 
a  man  fastened  on  poles  that  ran  through 
the  legs  and  out  at  the  shoulders.  The 
fingers  of  the  hands  dangled  loose  like 
empty  gloves.  The  hair  was  still  on  the 
head,  and  the  face  was  represented  by  a 
rather  cleverly  modeled  mask  made  of 
vegetable  fiber,  glued  together  with 
bread-fruit  juice.  In  the  eye-sockets  the 
artist  had  placed  neat  little  circular  coils 
of  cocoanut  leaf,  and  imitation  bracelets 
were  painted  on  the  arms.  The  face  and 
a  good  part  of  the  body  were  colored 
bright  red.  The  ends  of  the  stretcher- 
poles  were  carved  into  a  curious  likeness 
of  turtle  heads.  Standing  up  there  in  the 
dancing  light  and  shade  of  the  trees, 
against  the  high  brown  wall  of  the  hamal, 
the  creature  looked  extraordinarily  weird 
and  goblin-like.  It  had  a  phantom  grin 
on  its  face,  and  its  loose  skinny  fingers 
moved  in  the  current  of  the  strong  trade 


wind — it  certainly  looked  more  than  half 
alive. 

MAKING  A  CONICAL  HEAD 

It  was  while  I  was  staying  with  the 

kindly  and  hospitable  B s  that  I  had 

the  chance  of  photographing  what  I  be- 
lieve has  never  been .  photographed  be- 
fore— the  making  of  a  conical  head. 

A  good  many  years  ago  certain  men 
of  science  who  had  procured  skulls  from 
all  parts  of  the  world  were  struck  with 
the  extraordinary  egg-like  shape  of  some 
that  came  from  Malekula.  No  one  knew 
much  about  the  people  who  owned  these 
remarkable  heads,  and  science  forthwith 
erected  rather  a  pretty  theory  on  the 
basis  furnished  by  the  skulls,  placing  the 
owners  on  the  lowest  rung  of  the  human 
ladder  and  inferring  that  they  were 
nearer  to  the  ape  than  any  other  type  at 
that  time  known. 

Later  on  some  one  happened  to  dis- 
cover how  it  was  that  the  skulls  came  to 
show  this  peculiar  shape,  and  the  marvel 
vanished  when  it  was  known  that  com- 
pression in  infancy  was  the  cause.  It  is 
still,  however,  a  thing  curious  enough. 
Several  other  nations  compress  their  in- 
fants' heads,  but  none  seems  to  attain 
quite  such  a  striking  result  as  the  Male- 
kulan,  in  those  districts  where  the  custom 
is  systematically  practiced.  A  conical 
head,  when  really  well  done,  rises  up  to 
a  most  extraordinary  point,  and  at  the 
same  time  retreats  from  the  forehead  in 
such  a  manner  that  one  is  amazed  to 
know  the  owner  of  this  remarkable  pro- 
file preserves  his  or  her  proper  senses, 
such  as  they  are.  I  could  not  hear,  how- 
ever, that  the  custom  was  supposed  to 
affect  the  intellect  in  any  way. 

"It  would  be  hard  to  affect  what  they 
haven't  got,"  a  trader  observed  on  this 
subject. 

The  conical  shape  is  produced  by 
winding  strong  sinnet  cord  spirally  about 
the  heads  of  young  babies,  and  tightening 
the  coils  from  time  to  time.  A  piece  of 
plaited  mat  is  first  put  on  the  head,  and 
the  cord  is  coiled  over  this,  so  as  to  give 
it  a  good  purchase.  The  crown  of  the 


i8 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


head  is  left  to  develop  in  the  upward  and 
backward  fashion  that  is  so  much  ad- 
mired. One  fears  the  poor  babies  suffer 
very  much  from  the  process.  The  child 
I  saw  was  fretful  and  crying  and  looked 
as  if  it  were  constantly  in  pain ;  but  the 
mother,  forgetting  for  the  moment  her 
fear  of  the  strange  white  woman,  showed 
it  to  me  quite  proudly,  pointing  out  the 
cords  with  a  smile. 

She  had  a  normally  shaped  head  her- 
self, and  it  seemed  that  she  had  suffered 
by  her  parents'  neglect  of  this  important 
matter,  for  she  was  married  to  a  man 
who  was  of  no  particular  account.  A 
young  girl  who  was  standing  beside  her 
when  I  took  the  photograph  had  evidently 
had  a  more  careful  mother,  for  her  head 
was  almost  sugar-loaf-shaped.  It  is  in- 
teresting to  know  that  this  well-brought- 
up  young  woman  had  married  a  chief. 

STRANGE:  WOODEN  IMAGES  OF  ANCESTORS 

A  visitor  to  the  island  of  Malekula, 
New  Hebrides,  is  greatly  impressed  by 
the  huge  images  in  the  amils,  or  village 
squares;  they  are  rudely  carved,  bar- 
barously painted,  and  are  called  "temes," 
or  images  of  the  dead. 

These  images  differ  greatly  from  each 
other.  Some  are  made  of  wood,  others 
of  the  butt  of  a  fern  tree;  some  are 
painted  in  scrolls  or  stripes,  others  in 
rings;  some  display  only  a  head,  others 
are  rude  effigies  of  the  whole  human 
body;  in  some  the  eyes  are  round,  in 
others  oval-shaped. 

The  colors  employed  in  olden  times 
were  coral  lime,  yellow  ocher,  a  mineral 
green,  and  charcial.  Civilization,  through 
the  trader,  has  supplanted  the  green  and 
yellow  with  the  laundry  blue  and  red 
lead.  They  are  more  brilliant,  no  doubt, 
but  less  in  keeping  with  their  surround- 
ings. 

A  remarkable  fact  is,  that  although  the 
images  are  rude  in  design  and  out  of  all 
proportion,  they  are  real  attempts  at  por- 
traying the  human  figure.  Every  part  is 
carefully  put  in;  yet,  with  the  exception 
of  the  boar's  tusks  on  one,  there  is  an 
entire  absence  of  the  combination  of  the 


human  and  animal,  as,  e.  g.,  in  the 
Hindu  pantheon.  This  is  possibly  due 
to  imperfect  and  rudimentary  notions  of 
divinity,  if  these  are  at  all  gods.  There 
are  no  figures,  like  the  Ephesian  Diana, 
denoting  the  nourishment  of  man  and 
beast  from  many-breasted  Nature.  There 
are  no  many-headed  or  many-eyed  em- 
blems of  the  omnipotence  or  omniscience 
of  the  gods.  We  are  still  among  the 
lowest  and  rudest  forms  of  religion. 

The  people  of  Tanna,  another  island 
of  New  Hebrides,  are  a  remarkable 
race  and,  in  spite  of  their  murderous 
tendencies,  have  a  great  deal  more  char- 
acter than  the  Malekulans.  Queenland- 
ers  know  them  well,  for  thousands  of 
Tannese  have  been  employed  in  the 
Queensland  sugar  country  from  time  to 
time.  Whatever  they  may  have  gathered 
of  civilization  in  Australia  stays  with  them 
but  a  little  while  after  they  leave.  On 
landing  they  generally  take  off  all  their 
clothes,  go  back  to  their  villages,  paint 
their  faces,  and  take  a  hand  in  'the  latest 
tribal  row,  only  too  glad  to  be  back  to 
savagery  again. 

Like  the  Fijians,  who  were  at  one  time 
the  fiercest  and  most  brutal  cannibals 
of  the  Pacific,  and  who  are  now  a  peace- 
ful and  respecting  nation,  worthy  of  the 
crown  that  owns  them,  the  Tannese  will 
in  all  probability  "train  on"  into  a  really 
fine  race,  as  soon  as  they  can  be  re- 
strained from  continuously  murdering 
each  other  on  the  slightest  provocation, 
and  induced  to  clean  their  houses  and 
themselves  and  live  decently  and  quietly. 

The  yam  gardens  were  weariful  pict- 
ures. In  one  that  we  passed  nearly 
all  the  women  had  blackened  faces, 
the  Tannese  sign  of  mourning.  The 
yam  garden  was  a  waste  of  parched 
and  powdery  earth ;  the  bush  around  was 
burned  yellow  and  brown;  the  pale-blue 
sky  above  quivered  with  the  fierce  mid- 
day heat.  Stolid,  ugly,  and  streaming 
with  sweat,  the  women  worked  dully  on, 
breaking  off  for  a  few  minutes  to  stare 
and  wonder  at  the  visitor,  and  then  con- 
tinued their  heavy  task. 


THE  SAVAGE  SOUTH  SEAS 


:MEN  COMING  TO  SEE  A  WHITE  CHILE 


FASHIONS    IN    ERROMANGA,    NEW    HEBRIDES 


STUDIES  ON  THE   RATE  OF   EVAPORATION 

AT/1  RENO,   NEVADA,  AND   IN 

THE   SALTON    SINK 


BY   PROFESSOR   FRANK   H.  BIGELOW 

U.  S.  WEATHER  BUREAU 


THE  southwestern  United  States, 
from  southern  Utah  and  Colo- 
rado, including  Arizona  and 
New  Mexico,  to  southern  California,  is 
the  wonderland  of  North  America.  Here 
are  found  several  hundred  square  miles 
of  petrified  forests,  the  surface  of  the 
ground  being  covered  with  agate  tree 
trunks  and  chips ;  the  largest  natural 
bridge  in  the  world,  500  feet  span,  200 
feet  high,  and  600  feet  wide ;  the  greatest 
examples  of  volcanic  action,  with  50 
miles  of  lava  in  sheets  1,500  feet  thick; 
the  most  impressive  villages  of  cave- 
dwellings  in  the  world ;  the  many-storied 
cliff-houses  of  aboriginal  architecture; 
the  communes  or  town  republics  and  the 
pueblos  of  the  Acoma  and  Moki  Indians ; 
the  most  notable  tribes  of  nomad  Indians, 
the  Navajos  and  Apaches,  who  are  the 
best  fighters  of  the  savage  world ;  and  the 
remarkable  ruins  of  the  great  stone  and 
adobe  churches  of  the  Franciscan  mis- 
sionaries. 

The  greatest  wonder  of  all  is  the  work 
of  erosion  performed  by  the  Colorado 
River  in  its  course  from  Utah  to  the 
Gulf  of  California,  a  distance  of  2,000 
miles.  At  present  it  flows  through  the 
Grand  Canyon  in  a  narrow  gorge  about 
1,300  feet  deep  below  the  first  level  of 
the  valley ;  but  this  valley  itself  is  sur- 
rounded by  cliffs  and  pinnacles  rising 
5,000  to  6,000  feet  above  the  water  of 
the  river;  also,  passing  from  the  rim 
of  the  canyon  along  the  open  prairie  to 
the  mesas,  or  tables,  still  marking  the 
ancient  levels  of  the  plateau,  yet  another 
thousand  feet  must  be  added/""  The  geo- 
logical evidence  shows  that  more  than 
30,000  feet  of  rock  have  been  carried 
away  in  some  places,  and  that  over  a 


region  covering  200,000  square  miles  at 
least  6,000  feet  have  been  transferred  to 
the  ocean. 

The  cutting  of  the  gorge  through  800 
feet  of  black  gneiss,  800  feet  of  quartz, 
500  feet  of  sandstone,  3,600  feet  of  lime- 
stones of  various  kinds,  and  1,000  feet 
of  gypsum  mixed  with  limestone  is  a 
manifestation  of  water  power  hard  to 
appreciate. 

The  Colorado  River  drains  the  snow 
water  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  the 
plateau  southwestward,  and  has  gradually 
transported  this  immense  mass  of  material 
into  the  Gulf  of  California.  In  ancient 
days  this  gulf  extended  about  150  miles 
farther  north,  between  the  San  Jacinto 
and  the  San  Bernardino  Mountain  ranges, 
and  the  beach  lines  of  this  old  sea  can  be 
readily  traced  upon  the  sides  of  the 
mountains  15  feet  above  sea-level.  The 
river  entered  the  old  Gulf  of  California 
at  Yuma,  Arizona,  and  it  has  gradually 
built  a  delta  of  silt  and  debris  directly 
across  the  gulf,  so  that  the  northern  end 
of  the  ancient  depression  has  been  en- 
tirely cut  off  from  the  Pacific  Ocean  and 
its  waters.  This  sink  is  now  about  285 
feet  below  sea-level  in  the  Salton  Sea, 
while  the  delta  floor  is  20  to  40  feet  above- 
sea-level. 

The  waters  of  the  Colorado  River  pass 
through  a  narrow  channel  at  the  heads 
above  Yuma  and  flow  along  the  top  of 
the  delta  in  channels  which  are  readily 
shifted  to  the  north  or  the  south,  this 
being  the  natural  way  to  spread  more  soil 
over  an  ever-widening  delta  back.  The 
gradient  of  flow  is  steeper  northward  to 
the  Salton  Sink  than  it  is  southward  to- 
the  Gulf  of  California,  and  hence  any 
flowing  of  the  river  to  the  deep  sink  is. 


THE  SALTON  SINK 


Photo  by  F.  II.  Bigelow 

THE:  SALTON  SEA  AND  THE:  SALT  CREEK  TRESTLE: 

Of  the  Southern  Pacific  Railroad,  about  800  feet  long.     The  water  is  too  rough  on  calm  days 
to  float  pans;  the  waves  are  from  8  to  12  feet  high  in  heavy  weather     . 


accompanied  by  a  series  of  rapids,  in  con- 
sequence of  which  the  soluble  soil  of  the 
delta  is  peculiarly  subjected  to  rapid  cut- 
ting and  erosion  and  the  soil  is  trans- 
ported northward  in  great  masses.  This 
alternate  flowing  of  the  river  to  the  north 
and  south  has  occurred  many  times  in 
geological  history,  the  Salton  Sea  form- 
ing suddenly  and  drying  out  more  gradu- 
ally by  the  slower  process  of  evaporation, 
though  this  is  unusually  rapid  in  that  hot 
and  arid  climate. 

The  desert  regions  east  of  the  Coast 
Range  of  southern  California  are  caused 
by  the  fact  that  the  mountains  cut  off  the 
moist  west  winds  from  the  Pacific  Ocean, 
while  the  entire  region  is  too  far  west  of 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  receive  any  moist- 
ure from  its  southerly  winds. 

TEN  CROPS  OF  ALFALFA  A  YEAR 

The  latest  overflow  of  the  Colorado 
River  into  the  Salton  Sink  occurred  in 
1905-1906,  as  the  result  of  certain  irriga- 
tion projects.  The  soil  of  the  delta,  being 


the  product  of  the  mountains  of  Utah, 
New  Mexico,  and  Arizona,  is  particularly 
fertile,  when  supplied  with  irrigated 
water,  on  account  of  the  continuous  high 
temperature,  which  ranges  from  120°  in 
July  and  August  down  to  about  20°  to 
30°  in  January  and  February.  This  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that  about  ten  crops 
of  alfalfa  can  be  cut  annually  from  the 
same  ground  without  fertilization,  and 
that  crops  of  canteloupes  are  ready  for 
market  as  much  as  30  days  earlier  than 
any  other  region  of  the  United  States,  all 
other  vegetable  crops  flourishing  in  the 
same  abundant  ratio. 

The  Department  of  Agriculture  finds 
that  its  new  date  farms  at  Indio  and 
Mecca,  just  north  of  the  Salton  Sea,  are 
producing  dates  and  figs  of  a  very  supe- 
rior quality,  and  it  is  supposed  that  in 
less  than  20  years  that  region  will  pro- 
vide all  the  dates  consumed  in  the  United 
States,  as  much  as  20,000,000  pounds  an- 
nually. 


22 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


Photo  by  J.  E.  Church,  Jr. 
RENO  RESERVOIR,   TOWER   NO.   2 

Showing  two  six-foot  evaporating  pans  and  the  landings  for  four  two-foot  pans 


THE  SALTON  SINK 


This  fertile  soil  has  attracted  large 
irrigation  projects  over  the  Imperial  Val- 
ley, south  of  the  Sink,  where  15,000  to 
20,000  people  are  now  engaged  in  putting 
400  square  miles  of  country  under  irriga- 
tion by  means  of  canals  from  the  Colo- 
rado River.  It  was  while  this  canal 
system  was  being  constructed,  with  in- 
adequate headgates  at  the  river,  in  the 
soluble  soil,  that  in  1905  the  headings 
opened  by  wearing  in  the  banks  and  let 
the  entire  waters  of  the  river  flow  down 
the  steep  gradients  to  the  north.  The 
Imperial  Canal,  the  Alamo  and  the  New 
rivers  became  raging  torrents  and  cut 
away  immense  masses  of  country,  which 
was  transported  into  the  Salton  Sink. 
At  Brawley  the  Alamo  River  was  cut 
down  from  a  shallow  channel  to  a  gorge 
60  feet  deep,  and  it  spread  out  many 
hundred  feet  near  the  sea ;  also  the  New 
River,  which  at  Brawley  is  6  miles  west 
of  the  Alamo  River,  now  has  a  bed  800 
feet  wide  and  80  feet  deep,  whereas  it 
was  lately  only  a  shallow  stream.  The 
entire  system  of  canals  constructed  by 
the  California  Development  Company  be- 
came disorganized,  many  towns  were  in- 
jured, and  it  is  estimated  that  $400,000,- 
ooo  of  property  was  in  jeopardy. 

To  meet  this  emergency  the  Southern 
Pacific  Railroad  Company  undertook,  in 
connection  with  the  Development  Com- 
pany and  the  U.  S.  engineers  of  the 
Reclamation  Service,  to  build  suitable 
levees  to  control  the  future  course  of  the 
Colorado  River,  and  in  February,  1907, 
after  several  disappointing  failures,  this 
was  finally  accomplished.  The  new  levees 
withstood  the  floods  of  June  with  a  stage 
of  about  30  feet,  and  there  is  every  reason 
to  believe  that  the  Colorado  River  will  be 
permanently  diverted  to  the  southern 
slopes  of  its  delta  instead  of  to  the  north- 
ern, as  was  recently  its  course. 

KNOWLEDGE  OF  THE  RATE  OF  EVAPORATION 
VERY    NECESSARY 

The  result  of  this  temporary  flow  of 
the  river  to  the  Salton  Sink  was  to  make 
a  lake  of  fresh  water  about  45  miles  long, 
10  to  15  miles  wide,  containing  440 


square  miles  of  water  surface,  having  a 
depth  of  80  feet  in  the  middle. 

In  May,  1907,  the  surface  of  the  sea 
was  205  feet  below  sea-level,  and  in  Octo- 
ber it  had  fallen  to  about  207.5  feet-  This 
loss  is  due  to  evaporation,  but  the  actual 
evaporation  should  be  made  to  include 
the  amount  that  has  been  added  through 
the  flow  of  the  Alamo  and  New  rivers, 
which  has  been  quite  considerable.  Dur- 
ing the  past  year,  while  the  canals  were 
only  partially  repaired,  more  water 
flowed  to  the  sea  than  will  be  the  case 
after  the  beginning  of  1908,  when  opera- 
tions for  irrigation  will  be  fully  resumed 
for  that  season. 

It  has  been  supposed  quite  generally 
that  as  much  as  8  feet  of  the  Salton  Sea 
would  evaporate  annually,  though  we 
now  have  reasons  to  think  it  may  not  be 
more  than  4  or  5  feet,  as  will  be  shown 
from  the  results  of  the  Reno  work.  It 
is  evident  that,  as  the  sea  evaporates,  in 
the  course  of  a  few  years  we  shall  have 
a  series  of  lakes  of  different  sizes,  and 
that  in  general  this  sea  gives  us  an  un- 
usually good  opportunity  to  study  the 
subject  of  evaporation  on  a  large  scale 
and  under  favorable  conditions.  Mr  G. 
K.  Gilbert,  of  the  Geological  Survey,  pro- 
posed that  the  government  should  take 
up  this  subject,  because  the  theory  of 
evaporation  in  application  to  bodies  of 
water  in  the  open  is  very  unsatisfactorily 
understood,  as  shown  by  the  discordant 
results  of  several  researches  along  this 
line. 

The  engineers  of  the  irrigation  projects 
require  to  know  how  much  a  given  area 
of  water  surface  will  evaporate  in  a  given 
climate,  in  order  that  the  dams  may  be 
built  at  an  economic  height,  and  that  they 
may  know  how  much  water  will  be  avail- 
able for  distribution  to  farmers.  The 
engineers  of  water-works  systems  for 
large  cities,  especially  in  the  arid  West, 
need  such  information  in  a  reliable  form 
as  a  factor  in  their  estimate  of  resources. 
The  meteorologists  also  require  the  same 
knowledge  to  supplement  their  observa- 
tions on  precipitation.  For  example,  in 
the  United  States,  east  of  the  Mississippi 


24 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


River,  the  precipitation  and  the  evapora- 
tion are  about  equal  to  each  other — 40 
inches  per  year;  on  the  Rocky  Mountain 
plateau  the  precipitation  is  about  20 
inches  and  the  evaporation  60  inches,  and 
in  the  southwestern  states  the  precipita- 
tion is  only  10  inches  and  the  evaporation 
80  inches.  The  available  water  is  there- 
fore derived  from  the  melting  snows  of 
the  mountains,  brought  under  control  by 
the  rivers  and  the  canals  to  the  fertile 
soils  of  the  arid  regions,  and  this  means 
the  construction  of  storage  basins,  which 
are  subjected  to  intense  evaporation. 

Mr  Gilbert's  suggestion  resulted  in  a 
conference  board  from  the  U.  S.  Geolog- 
ical Survey,  the  U.  S.  Reclamation 
Service,  and  the  U.  S.  Weather  Bureau 
visiting  the  Salton  Sea  and  reporting  that 
the  project  of  studying  the  laws  of  evap- 
oration at  the  sea  should  be  undertaken, 
and  that  the  work  should  be  under  the 
immediate  control  of  the  U.  S.  Weather 
Bureau. 

There  have  been  several  important  and 
careful  researches  made  regarding  the 
probable  law  of  evaporation  from  small 
pans,  with  the  view  of  connecting  the 
amount  of  water  delivered  by  a  pan  to 
that  given  off  by  a  lake  or  large  body  of 
water  in  the  same  climatic  conditions. 
It  is  much  to  be  desired  that  the  law  shall 
so  be  expressed  that  from  the  given  me- 
teorological data  of  a  locality  the  corre- 
sponding amount  of  the  loss  of  water  in 
a  basin  of  any  size  can  be  computed. 
Unfortunately  the  results  of  these  re- 
searches are  by  no  means  in  agreement. 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  an  expensive 
campaign  is  being  planned  at  the  Salton 
Sea,  to  extend  over  several  years,  it 
seemed  prudent  to  attempt  to  gain  some 
better  ideas  regarding  the  physical  prob- 
lems involved  before  beginning  the  work 
in  the  desert. 

THE    STATION    AT    RENO,    NEVADA 

After  consideration  it  was  decided  to 
set  up  at  Reno,  Nevada,  a  temporary  ex- 
periment -station,  planned  to  bring  out 
the  causes  of  the  disagreements.  In 
summer  the  dryness  of  the  climate  at 


Reno  is  about  the  same  as  at  the  Salton 
Sea,  and  the  amount  of  evaporation  from 
a  small  pan  is  nearly  the  same  in  amount, 
nearly  8  feet  per  year ;  but  the  discomfort 
of  working  in  the  open  is  not  nearly  so 
great,  on  account  of  its  elevation,  4,500 
feet  above  sea-level.  Our  experience 
showed  us  that  Reno  possesses  an  un- 
usually agreeable  summer  climate,  with 
cool  nights,  not  very  hot  days,  and  plenty 
of  wind  from  the  mountains  to  keep  up  a 
very  pleasant  circulation  of  the  air,  espe- 
cially in  the  afternoons. 

We  set  up  five  towers,  40  feet  high,  by 
August  i,  1907,  and  continued  regular 
observations  till  September  15,  by  which 
time  we  had  secured  all  the  records 
needed  for  our  preliminary  studies,  some 
35,000  observations,  including  100,000 
readings  of  our  instruments.  There  were 
29  evaporating  pans  placed  in  position, 
five  6-foot  pans  in  the  water  or  on  the 
ground  near  the  base  of  the  towers,  and 
twenty-four  2-foot  pans  on  the  stagings 
above  the  surface.  The  records  were 
taken  every  3  hours  during  the  day,  from 
5  a.  m.  to  8  p.  m.,  and  readings  were  made 
at  i  o'clock,  just  after  midnight.  These 
included  the  temperatures  of  the  water 
surface,  of  the  air  at  half  an  inch  above 
the  water,  and  of  the  air  at  two  feet  above 
the  water  of  each  pan.  The  vapor  ten- 
sions, dew-points,  and  the  amount  of 
water  evaporated  were  also  on  the 
program.  The  wind  velocity  at  different 
heights,  from  the  bottom  to  the  top  of  the 
towers,  was  observed,  and  some  new 
Pische  evaporimeters  were  employed, 
with  the  purpose  of  ultimately  substi- 
tuting them  for  the  large  evaporation 
pans. 

The  serious  trouble  with  all  this  class 
of  meteorological  work  is  that  there  is  no 
suitable  self-registering  apparatus  for  re- 
cording the  wet-bulb  thermometers  or  of 
getting  the  vapor  contents  of  the  air  con- 
tinuously. The  consequence  is  that  we 
must  read  the  instruments  many  times 
daily,  in  order  to  obtain  any  correct 
knowledge  of  the  variations  of  all  these 
elements  with  the  heating  and  cooling  of 
the  atmosphere  in  the  course  of  the  day, 


THE  SALTON  SINK 


26 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


and  at  present  there  is  no  way  to  avoid 
this  labor  and  expense.  The  physical  ex- 
ertion of  climbing  towers,  carrying  a  bas- 
ket of  instruments  along,  making  read- 
ings all  day,  was  not  inconsiderable,  as  it 
took  from  forty  minutes  to  one  hour  to 
do  the  work  on  a  single  tower.  There 
were  five  towers  to  attend  to,  and  this 
had  to  be  repeated  seven  times  every  day. 
We  had  the  good  fortune  to  incur  no  ac- 
cidents of  a  personal  nature,  though  sev- 
eral thermometers  were  broken  in  the 
operations. 

The  wind  during  the  afternoon  and 
evening  often  reached  40  miles  an  hour, 
and  even  50  miles  per  hour,  and  on  the 
top  of  the  towers  it  was  no  little  task  to 
guard  the  delicate  instruments  against 
injury  in  the  violent  gusts.  The  Sierra 
Nevada  mountains,  10,000  to  12,000  feet 
high,  poured  down  into  the  Reno  Valley 
a  powerful  current  of  cool  air  every  day 
with  wonderful  regularity,  and  this 
caused  the  strong  winds  to  prevail. 

INTERESTING    RESULTS 

We  succeeded  in  keeping  up  the  cur- 
rent reductions  of  the  observations  to  an 
advanced  stage,  and  so  gained  an  idea  of 
our  results  before  leaving  Reno,  the  1 8th 
of  September.  They  were  such  as  to 
show  clearly  enough  the  source  of  the 
discrepancies  that  have  been  mentioned. 
For  example,  it  was  soon  seen  that  the 
evaporation  from  the  pans  on  the  top  of 
the  towers  was  from  two  to  three  times 
as  much  as  at  the  foot  of  the  towers,  in 
or  near  the  water,  and  that  there  is  a 
regular  progression  from  pan  to  pan. 
On  the  other  hand,  in  the  dry  field  where 
tower  No.  I  was  located  there  is  no  such 
important  difference,  the  evaporation 
being  practically  the  same  all  the  way  up 
the  tower.  At  tower  No.  5,  in  the  alfalfa 
field,  where  the  ground  was  wet  from 
irrigation,  we  found  that  the  retardation 
of  evaporation  was  confined  to  10  or  15 
feet  from  the  ground. 

It  became  clear  enough  that  the  reser- 
voir, which  is  about  1,000  feet  long, 
covers  itself  with  a  sheet  of  invisible 
vapor  about  30  feet  thick,  and  that  this 


vapor  acts  like  a  blanket  upon  the  fresh 
evaporation  rising  from  the  water.  Dur- 
ing the  process  of  evaporation  there  are 
two  principal  stages :  First,  the  water 
must  turn  into  vapor,  and  the  amount 
differs  according  to  the  temperature. 
Thus,  for  o°  centigrade  I  cubic  centi- 
meter becomes  211,000  cubic  centimeters 
of  vapor;  at  100°  centigrade  it  becomes 
1,658  cubic  centimeters  of  vapor.  Second, 
these  columns  of  fresh  vapor  must  stream 
off  into  the  air  by  diffusion  and  mixture, 
and  the  capacity  of  the  air  to  receive  it 
depends  upon  its  own  temperature  and 
dew-point,  which  determine  its  vapor  con- 
tents. If  the  air  is  dry  and  the  difference 
between  the  dry-air  temperature  and 
dew-point  is  great,  there  will  be  rapid 
evaporation,  but  if  small  the  evaporation 
will  be  slow.  The  wind  is  an  important 
factor,  because  it  brings  new  masses  of 
air,  not  so  much  saturated,  over  the 
water  surface,  and  thus  keeps  the  super- 
posed air  more  ready  to  receive  the  newly 
evaporated  vapor.  There  are  at  least 
five  factors  to  take  into  the  account: 

1.  The    diffusion    factor — a    function 
of  the  height  above  the  surface  of  the 
water. 

2.  The  temperature  of  the  water  and 
its  capacity  to  deliver  vapor — a  function 
of  its  vapor  pressure. 

3.  The  capacity  of  the  air  to  receive 
vapor — a  function  of  the  difference  be- 
tween the  dry  air  temperature  and  the 
dew-point. 

4.  The  velocity  of  the  wind,  the  func- 
tion being  the  square  of  the  velocity. 

5.  The  wind  coefficient,  being  a  func- 
tion of  the  height  above  the  ground. 

A  small  pan  in  the  open  air,  away  from 
a  sheet  of  water,  evaporates  faster  than 
the  same  pan  in  like  conditions  located 
within  the  blanket  of  vapor  lying  over 
a  lake,  because  these  factors  operate  to- 
gether differently.  Hence  it  is  evident 
that  the  location  of  the  experimental  pan 
relative  to  the  water  surface  of  a  lake 
must  be  fully  taken  into  the  account.  The 
many  pans  at  Reno  gave  differing  re- 
sults, grading  up  and  down  the  towers, 
and  from  the  center  of  the  reservoir  to 
the  distant  dry  fields,  in  such  a  way  as 


THE  SALTON  SINK 


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28 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


to  leave  no  question  of  these  facts.  Pre- 
vious researches  have  not  taken  sufficient 
account  of  the  locality  of  the  small  pans 
in  deriving  their  formulas,  and  they  have 
been  discordant  as  a  consequence. 

The  preliminary  discussions  of  the 
data,  made  since  our  return  to  Wash- 
ington, show  that  we  must  depart  from 
the  common  Dalton  Law  in  at  least  four 
important  particulars,  and  we  shall  pro- 
ceed to  test  the  new  formula  as  fully  as 
possible  within  the  next  few  years. 

It  is  our  purpose  to  erect  two  or  three 
towers  at  the  Salton  Sea,  one  high  tower 
on  a  small  island  about  four  miles  from 
the  southern  edge  of  the  sea,  to  get  some 
idea  of  the  behavior  of  the  great  vapor 
blanket  lying  over  that  large  water  area. 
We  must  know  its  depth  and  how  it  acts 
over  a  large  body  of  water,  as  compared 
with  the  small  Reno  reservoir.  There 
will  be  two  smaller  towers  in  the  sea,  one 
about  one  mile  from  the  Salt  Creek  tres- 
tle and  projecting  20  feet  from  the  sur- 
face, and  another  in  50  feet  of  water  and 
flush  with  the  surface.  As  the  waters 
recede  under  evaporation,  in  a  few  years 
these  sea  towers  will  gradually  become 
land  towers,  and  this  will  enable  us  to 
study  the  working  of  the  blanket  from 
the  middle  of  the  sea  into  the  country — 


that  is,  for  large  and  for  small  lakes — in 
the  course  of  a  few  years.  It  is  purposed 
to  invent,  if  possible,  suitable  apparatus 
for  self-registering  the  evaporation  and 
for  recording  the  vapor  contents  of  the 
atmosphere. 

There  are,  however,  numerous  and 
serious  difficulties  to  be  overcome  in  the 
carrying  on  the  work  at  the  Salton  Sea, 
and  not  the  least  is  the  hardship  of  en- 
during the  high  temperatures  of  the  sum- 
mer as  well  as  the  loneliness  of  the  iso- 
lated life  that  must  be  experienced  by  the 
observers.  The  officials  of  the  Southern 
Pacific  Railroad — Mr  R.  H.  Ingram,  the 
general  superintendent  of  the  Southern 
California  division,  and  Mr  A.  D'Heur, 
the  chief  engineer — have  courteously 
agreed  to  cooperate  with  the  U.  S. 
Weather  Bureau  in  the  construction  and 
maintenance  of  the  piers,  towers,  and 
houses  needed  for  the  investigations. 

I  was  assisted  at  Reno,  Nevada,  by  Mr 
H.  L.  Heiskell  of  Washington,  D.  C.,  Mr 
Geren,  Mr  Robeson  of  Reno,  Professors 
Minor  and  Church  of  the  University,  by 
Messrs  Pearson,  Steffin,  Beebe,  Potthoff, 
students,  and  by  many  citizens  of  the  city 
of  Reno,  to  all  of  whom  the  Weather 
Bureau  is  greatly  indebted. 


METHODS   OF  OBTAINING  SALT   IN   COSTA 

RICA 


THE  following  series  of  illustra- 
tions, showing  the  methods  of 
obtaining  salt  on  the  Pacific 
coast  of  Costa  Rica,  were  taken  by  Pro- 
fessor Y.  Fid  Tristan  of  San  Jose.  Pro- 
fessor Tristan  is  a  member  of  the  Na- 
tional Geographic  Society  who  lives  in 
Central  America,  and  sends  the  pictures 
to  its  Magazine  that  all  the  members  of 
the  Society  may  see  this  quaint  method  of 
getting  salt. 

There  are  onlv  a  few  miles  of  railwav 


in  Costa  Rica.  Transportation  is  there- 
fore expensive,  but  labor  is  cheap.  While 
the  salt  obtained  in  this  primitive  manner 
is  coarse,  it  answers  most  of  the  require- 
ments of  the  people.  Costa  Rica  is  one 
of  the  most  interesting  sections  of  the 
Americas.  The  proportion  of  its  white 
population  is  large  for  a  Latin  American 
country.  Public  instruction  is  free  and 
compulsory  and  the  Costa  Ricans  are 
among  the  most  cultured  of  the  American 
peoples. 


OBTAINING  SALT  IN  COSTA  RICA 


29 


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THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


PROVIDED  WITH  WOODEN  SPADES  THE  PEONES  GATHER  THE  SALTED  EARTH  INTO 

LONG,    NARROW    HEAPS 


THE   HEAPS   THUS    MADE  AND   THE   LOW    WATER   AT   THE   DISTANCE 


OBTAINING  SALT  IN  COSTA  RICA 


31 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


FILTERING  OUT  THE:  SALT 

The  salted  earth  is  unloaded  into  two  wooden  tanks,  in  the  bottom  of  which  a  layer  of 
straw  and  sand  has  been  placed.  Salt  water  is  poured  over  the  earth  and  filters  through  the 
straw  and  sand.  The  saturated  water  is  collected  into  another  tank  buried  under  those  which 
are  in  sight.  To  ascertain  the  density  of  the  solution  a  new  laid  egg  is  introduced  into  it. 
The  operation  is  concluded  when  the  primitive  areometer  is  nearly  but  not  completely  sub- 
merged. 


DIAGRAM   TO  EXPLAIN   THE   FILTER  TANKS 


OBTAINING  SALT  IN  COSTA  RICA 


33 


34 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


DR   BELL'S  MAN-LIFTING  KITE 


THROUGH  the  courtesy  of  Dr 
Alexander  Graham  Bell,  the 
NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGA- 
ZINE is  enabled  to  print  the  following 
series  of  illustrations  of  his  experiments 
with  his  gigantic  man-lifting  kite,  the 
Cygnet.  This  kite  was  sent  up  in  De- 
cember, 1907,  both  with  and  without  a 
man.  The  pictures  on  pages  42-44  show 
it  aloft,  carrying  no  weight,  while  those 
on  pages  49-52  illustrate  the  flight  when 
Lieutenant  Selfridge,  of  the  United 
States  Army,  ascended  to  a  height  of  168 
feet  and  remained  in  the  air  for  over 
seven  minutes. 

While  Dr  Bell's  ultimate  object  is  to 
secure  a  flying  machine  that  will  support 
itself  in  the  air  at  a  moderate  rate  of 
speed,*  the  experiments  with  the  Cygnet 

*  See  "Aerial  Locomotion,  with  a  few  notes 
of  progress  in  the  construction  of  the  Aero- 
drome." By  Dr  Alexander  Graham  Bell,  NA- 
TIONAL GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE,  January,  1907. 


have  been  mainly  studies  in  stability. 
The  wonderful  steadiness  of  this  form  of 
structure  is  shown  by  the  pictures  and 
especially  by  the  fact  that  the  Cygnet  de- 
scended from  1 68  feet  to  the  'water  so 
slowly  and  evenly  that  the  man  aboard 
did  not  realize  he  was  dropping  until  he 
found  the  kite  in  the  water.  The  kite 
flew  as  easily  with  Lieutenant  Selfridge 
aboard  as  it  had  on  the  previous  trial  with 
no  load,  and  could  undoubtedly  have 
borne  a  weight  several  times  as  great  as 
that  of  one  man.  Owing  to  the  severity 
of  the  winter  in  Baddeck,  Cape  Breton, 
Nova  Scotia,  where  these  experiments 
are  being  conducted,  it  has  been  neces- 
sary to  postpone  further  flights  until  the 
spring,  when  the  work  will  be  resumed. 

Dr  Bell's  next  step  will  be  to  put  a 
powerful  light  motor  on  a  modified 
form  of  the  Cygnet. 

The  photographs  were  taken  by  Mr 
J.  A.  Douglas  McCurdy. 


PRACTICE:  DRILL  WITH  A  SMALL  KITE 

The  water  shield  in  the  bow  keeps  the  men  comparatively  dry 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


VIEWS  OF  THE  AERODROME:  SHED  IN  WHICH  THE  GIANT  MAN-U^TING  KITE, 
THE  CYGNET,  is  HOUSED 


DR  BELL'S  MAN-LIFTING  KITE 


37 


VIEW  OF  THE  AERODROME  SHED 

Showing  the  raft  with  its  long  tilting  arms  backed  up  against  the  building  to  receive  the  giant 
kite.    The  Cygnet  placed  on  board  the  raft 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


DR  BELL'S  MAN-LIFTING  KITE 


39 


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TOWING  THE  GIANT  KITE,  PREPARATORY  TO  SENDING  IT  ALOFT 

When  everything  is  ready  for  the  release,  the  tilting  arms  of  the  raft  (see  pitcure,  p.  37)  are 

raised,  and  the  kite  let  go 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


views  OF  THE:  KITE  IN  THE:  AIR 

Flying  in  a  3O-mile  wind.     The  remarkable  stability  of  the  tetrah_dral   structure   in  air   is 
illustrated  by  the  pictures.    For  flying  weight  see  p.  40 


DR  BELL'S  MAN-LIFTING  KITE 


43 


ANOTHER  VIEW  OF  THE  KITE  ALOFT 

he  pull  on  the  flying  line  was  greater  than  could  be  measured,  but  considerably  exceeded 

210  pounds 


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46  THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


PICKING    UP    THE    CYGNET 


THE  CYGNET  SAFELY  LIFTED  ON   TO   ITS  RAFT  AND  READY  TO   BE  TOWED   HOME 


DR  BELL'S  MAN-LIFTING  KITE 


47 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


DR  BELL'S  MAN-LIFTING  KITE 


49 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


DR  BELL'S  MAN-LIFTING  KITE 


51 


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JUST  BEFORE  THE  ASCENT 


KITE    WITH     MAN    ABOARD,    FLYING    AT    A 

HEIGHT  OF  168  FEET 


The  kite  remained  in  the  air  for  about  seven  minutes,  and  then  began  to  come  down  on 
account  of  a  decrease  in  the  velocity  of  the  wind.  Its  descent  was  so  gentle  and  even  that 
Lieutenant  Selfridge,  whose  view  of  the  water  in  front  was  intercepted,  did  not  know  it  was 
dropping  until  it  actually  touched  the  water.  Photos  by  Mr  John  Davidson. 


MORE  CHANGES   OF  THE 
COLORADO  RIVER 

THE  completion  of  the  works  at  the 
intake  below  Yuma  early  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1907,  sent  the -main  current  of  the 
Colorado  River  down  the  old  channel, 
which  it  had  left  empty  during  the 
greater  part  of  the  previous  year.  This 
channel  lies  near  the  eastern  margin  of 
the  delta,  and  actually  cuts  into  the  gravel 
bluffs  of  the  Sonoran  mesa  at  three  places 
below  the  international  boundary. 

The  lowest  point  at  which  the  river 
finally  left-  this  mesa,  at  about  32°  n' 
North,  is  the  center  of  interest  of  the 


present  note,  for  it  marks  the  head  of 
tidal  action,  and  also  the  location  of  a 
depression  in  the  eastern  bank  from 
which  a  shallow  trough  extended  south- 
eastwardly  to  the  shores  of  the  Gulf  east 
of  Montague  Island.  Ordinarily  a  series 
of  salt  pools  extend  from  within  two 
miles  of  the  river  down  the  depression  to 
the  Gulf,  being  known  as  the  Santa  Clara 
Slough. 

During  a  visit  to  this  region  in  March,. 
1905,  a  great  volume  of  flood  water  was 
seen  to  be  leaving  the  main  channel  and 
making  its  wav  to  the  Gulf  through  the 
Santa  Clara  Slough,  and  the  prediction 
was  hazarded  that  a  shift  of  the  cutting: 


MORE  CHANGES  OF  THE  COLORADO  RIVER 


53 


action  of  the  water  might  send  the  prin- 
cipal current  to  the  sea  in  this  way.* 

Shortly  after  that  observation  was 
made  the  entire  stream  was  diverted  into 
the  Salton  basin  for  a  time,  leaving  the 
bed  of  the  river  bare  for  more  than  a 
hundred  miles.  With  the  restoration  of 
recent  conditions  the  Colorado  resumed 
its  way  to  the  Gulf,  but  in  the  mean  time 
such  erosion  and  formation  of  bars  had 
taken  place  in  the  section  affected  by  the 
tides  below  the  "Colony"  mesa  that  the 
main  current  flowed  through  the  Santa 
Clara  Slough,  if  reports  from  three  dif- 
ferent sources  are  to  be  credited. 

The  consequences  of  this  change  are 
somewhat  momentous.  The  main  mouth 
of  the  river  was  formerly  20  or  30  miles 
farther  northwest  of  the  new  debouchure, 
and  with  the  converging  shores  of  the 
Gulf  gave  conditions  which,  with  the 
spring  tides  at  from  30  to  40  feet,  pro- 
duced a  marked  bore,  being  felt  many 
miles  upstream,  both  in  the  Colorado  and 
the  Hardy.  The  new  channel  reaches 
sealevel  by  a  much  more  gradual  descent 
and  without  the  strong  current  and  con- 
verging shores  favorable  to  developing 
the  bore. 

The  new  mouth  will  become  the  center 
of  a  new  series  of  mud  flats,  which  fringe 
the  shores  already  for  a  distance  of  50 
miles.  The  deposition  of  silt  will  operate 
to  close  the  eastern  channel  between 
Montague  Island  and  the  mainland, 
which  has  long  since  ceased  to  be  navig- 
able and  will  soon  afford  material  which 
will  be  piled  by  the  tides  in  the  deeper 
channel  to  the  westward,  \vith  the  final 
result  of  filling  it  more  or  less  com- 
pletely, thus  forming  a  brackish  or  saline 

*  Bull.  Amer.  Geog.  Society.    January,  1906. 


lake  comprising  Sargents  reach  and  the 
Great  Horseshoe  Curve  50  or  60  miles 
in  length,  into  which  the  seepage  waters 
of  the  Hardy  will  flow,  charged  with  the 
salts  picked  up  from  the  mud  volcanoes 
to  the  northward.  Before  the  channel  is 
closed,  however,  the  action  of  the  tides 
will  carry  salt  water  far  up  -the  channels 
of  both  the  Hardy  and  the  old  estuary, 
with  a  pertinent  effect  on  the  vegetation 
on  the  extensive  tide-washed  flats. 

The  new  eastern  channel  is  one  prob- 
ably not  previously  occupied  by  the  river 
in  its  present  condition,  and  the  change 
adds  to  the  delta  the  triangular  area 
enclosed  by  the  old  channel  below  the 
"Colony  mesa"  to  the  Gulf,  and  the  new 
channel,  inclusive  of  great  expanses  of 
mud  flats,  and  a  range  of  gravel  dunes  or 
hillocks  which  find  their  culmination  at 
the  extreme  northern  end  of  the  triangle 
immediately  below  where  the  new  channel 
takes  off  from  the  old  one. 

In  addition  to  increasing  the  area  of 
the  delta,  serious  disturbance  of  the  plants 
and  animals  over  an  area  of  several  hun- 
dred square  miles  may  ensue.  In  a  large 
part  of  it  the  composition  of  the  flora  will 
be  totally  altered.  It  is  needless  to  say 
that  the  meager  agricultural  operations  of 
the  fewCocopah  Indians  who  frequent  the 
region  will  be  seriously  disturbed.  So  far 
as  might  be  inferred  from  the  recon- 
naisance  already  made  of  the  conditions 
of  flowage  into  the  Laguna  Maqutata,  in 
the  extreme  western  portion  of  the  delta, 
no  serious  effect  will  be  apparent  in  its 
irregular  filling  and  shrinking  by  evap- 
oration. 

D.  T.  MACDOUGAL, 

Director  of  Botanical  Research, 

Carnegie  Institution. 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


31.30 


HONORS  FOR  AMUNDSEN 


THE  principal  feature  of  the  an- 
nual banquet  of  the  National 
Geographic  Society,  December 
14,  was  the  presentation  of  the  Hubbard 
Gold  Medal  of  the  Society  to  Captain 
Roald  Amundsen  by  the  Vice-President, 
Hon.  Charles  W.  Fairbanks.  Several 
hundred  guests  and  members  attended  the 
dinner,  including  representatives  from 
Argentine,  Belgium,  Bolivia,  Denmark, 
France,  Germany,  Great  Britain,  Italy, 
Japan,  Mexico,  Norway,  and  Switzer- 
land, and  from  all  parts  of  the  United 
States.  Toasts  were  responded  to  by 
Hon.  J.  J.  Jusserand,  the  French  Am- 
bassador ;  Hon.  James  Bryce,  the  British 
Ambassador ;  Representative  Theodore 
Burton,  of  Ohio;  Hon.  Harvey  D. 
Goulder,  of  Cleveland,  and  Representa- 
tive J.  Hampton  Moore,  of  Pennsylvania. 
The  President  of  the  National  Geo- 
graphic Society,  Dr.  Willis  L.  Moore, 
acted  as  toastmaster.  The  speeches  fol- 
low. 

INTRODUCTION  BY  THE  TOASTMASTER,  THE) 
PRESIDENT  OF  THE  NATIONAL  GEO- 
GRAPHIC SOCIETY. 

On  January  13, 1908,  the  National  Geo- 
graphic Society  will  be  twenty  years  old. 

This  organization,  which  is  of  such 
comparatively  recent  inauguration,  today 
numbers  a  membership  of  over  thirty 
thousand  thinking,  educated,  working 
people.  Its  income  is  spent  entirely  in 
the  collection  and  the  dissemination  of 
knowledge  that  we  believe  will  work  for 
the  betterment  of  humanity.  We  en- 
deavor to  treat  of  the  earth,  the  waters 
that  cover  it,  the  air  that  is  above  it, 
the  configuration  of  the  earth,  the  bound- 
aries of  land  and  water;  and  then  to 
teach  of  the  peoples  that  inhabit  the 
earth — their  economic,  their  political,  and 
their  social  conditions.  From  our  ros- 
trum speak  men  who  are  masters  of  their 
subjects.  Through  our  Magazine  we  dis- 
seminate their  views  throughout  the 
large  membership  of  the  Society.  Our 
object  is  to  aid  research  and  diffuse 
knowledge. 


As  in  ^warfare  "it  is  the  man  behind 
the  gun,"  likewise  in  every  peaceful  en- 
deavor it  is  still  the  man  behind  the  gun ; 
and,  apropos  of  that,  our  Society  takes 
pleasure  in  the  fact  that  among  those  who 
direct  the  operations  of  this  institution 
there  are  found  such  names  as  Alexander 
Graham  Bell,  Robert  E.  Peary,  General 
Greely,  Admiral  Chester,  of  the  Navy, 
Gen.  John  M.  Wilson,  of  the  Army,  the 
former  Chief  of  Engineers.  But  the  list 
is  long.  I  only  refer  to  a  few,  so  that  you 
may  know  who  are  your  hosts  tonight. 
We,  the  members  of  the  Board  of  Man- 
agers and  the  members  of  the  Society, 
greet  you  and  extend  to  you  our  hos- 
pitality. 

The  first  condition  requisite  to  great 
success  in  a  man  is  a  clear  mind  and  a 
strong  body.  Such  a  condition  produces 
as  nearly  as  may  be  the  perfect  com- 
posite of  the  man.  We  are  here  tonight 
first  to  do  honor  to  one  who  possesses 
the  strong  body  and  the  clear  mind,  and 
an  acute  intellect.  We  wish  to  confer  the 
honor  of  this  Society  upon  him.  By 
unanimous  vote  its  Board  of  Managers 
has  directed  that  a  medal  shall  be  pre- 
sented to  Captain  Roald  Amundsen  for 
achieving  the  Northwest  Passage  and  de- 
finitely locating  the  Magnetic  North 
Pole ;  and  to  still  further  do  him  honor 
we  are  favored  with  the  presence  of  one 
who  also  represents  the  clear  mind  in 
the  strong  body;  for  no  man  could  rise 
to  the  dignity  of  Vice-President  of  these 
United  States  who  does  not  possess  those 
qualities.  Therefore  our  Society  feels 
honored  by  the  presence  of  the  Vice- 
President,  and  I  will  introduce  him  to 
present  the  medal  to  Captain  Amundsen. 

THE  VICE-PRESIDENT,  HON.   CHARLES  W. 
FAIRBANKS 

Mr  President,  Members  of  the  Na- 
tional Geographic  Society,  Ladies  and 
Gentlemen:  I  want  to  congratulate  this 
great  Society  upon  what  it  has  so 
splendidly  accomplished,  upon  the  work 
it  is  doing  with  such  high  intelligence 
and  such  devotion.  The  field  of  its  en- 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


CAPTAIN    ROALD    AMUNDSEN    IN    THE    CABIN    OF    THE    GJOA 


deavor  is  as  wide  as  human  nature  and  as 
all-embracing  as  the  world  itself. 

Captain  Roald  Amundsen,  the  pleasant 
duty  devolves  upon  me  to  present  to  you 
on  behalf  of  the  National  Geographic 
Society  this  gold  medal.  It  is  presented 
to  you  because  of  what  you  have  so 
splendidly  accomplished.  It  is  in  recog- 
nition of  your  arduous  and  intelligent 
service  in  the  great  North.  It  is  because 
of  your  scientific  investigation  with  re- 
gard to  the  Magnetic  North  Pole.  You 
have  removed  many  of  the  doubts,  much 
of  the  theoretical  assumption  with  respect 
to  the  Magnetic  North  Pole  and  have 
established  well-authenticated  fact  with 
regard  to  it — an  achievement  that  is 
yours  and  only  yours  since  the  history  of 
the  world  began. 

This  medal  is  presented  to  you  further 
because  of  the  fact  that  you  are  the  first 
one  to  sail  through  the  Northwest  Pas- 


sage in  your  own  vessel.  Many  intrepid 
and  resourceful  explorers  have  for  more 
than  three  centuries  ineffectually  at- 
tempted what  you  in  God's  providence 
have  accomplished.  There  are  many 
names  associated  with  the  attempt  to  ac- 
complish what  you  have  achieved.  Their 
efforts  were  not  crowned  with  the  same 
success  which  have  crowned  yours ;  yet 
they  each  and  all  served  to  reduce  greatly 
the  zone  of  the  unknown,  and  each  and 
all  have  in  a  measure  contributed  to  the 
triumph  which  finally  is  yours.  I  was 
gratified  to  read  in  your  modest  account 
of  your  own  achievement  the  liberal 
praise  you  gave  to  all  who  have  devoted 
their  service  to  the  accomplishment  of  the 
Northwest  Passage.  You  are  honored 
here  in  an  especial  degree. 

It  is  a  happy  circumstance  that  there 
are  assembled  at  this  hospitable  board 
tonight  not  only  men  distinguished  in 


HONORS  FOR  AMUNDSEN 


57 


science,  in  art,  in  literature,  and  in  states- 
manship in  the  United  States,  but  here 
are  gathered  the  representatives  of  the 
greatest  countries  upon  this  globe.  The 
representatives  of  the  chief  nations  of 
the  earth  are  met  here  to  do  you  honor. 
It  has  seemed  to  me  always,  as  I  have 
read  the  familiar  story  of  the  efforts 
and  sacrifice  of  the  explorers  of  all  coun- 
tries in  the  Arctic  regions,  that  there  is 
something  in  it  of  the  heroic,  when  we 
contemplate  the  countless  money  that  has 
been  spent  and  the  scores  and  scores  of 
lives  that  have  been  sacrificed  in  extend- 
ing the  boundaries  of  our  knowledge  in 
that  inhospitable  quarter  of  the  earth.  I 
have  believed  that  those  who  have  laid 
down  their  lives  there  are  entitled  to  the 
same  honor  the  soldier  wins  when  he  lays 
his  life  down  upon  the  battlefield  of  his 
country. 

It  is  a  felicitous  fact  that  a  Norseman 
should  have  first  sailed  through  the 
Northwest  Passage  in  his  own  vessel. 
We  have  a  hospitality  for  him  in  this 
country.  Many  of  our  countrymen  who 
dignify  and  honor  American  citizenship 
are  fellow-countrymen  of  yours. 

As  I  said  before,  this  medal  is  given  to 
you  by  this  great  Society  because  of  what 
you  have  accomplished  in  science  and  in 
the  extension  of  the  domain  of  geo- 
graphic knowledge.  It  is  also  presented 
to  you  because  of  the  esteem  of  the  So- 
ciety for  you  personally.  I  have  the  very 
great  honor,  my  dear  sir,  to  present  to 
you  this  mark  of  the  respect  of  the  Na- 
tional Geographic  Society  of  America. 

RESPONSE;  BY  CAPT.  ROAI.D  AMUNDSEN 

Mr  Vice-President,  Mr  President,  and 
Members  of  the  National  Geographic 
Society,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen :  I  am 
highly  honored  and  justly  proud  of 
the  very  high  distinction  which  the 
National  Geographic  Societv  so  gra- 
ciously has  bestowed  upon  me  in  pre- 
senting me  with  the  Society's  gold 
medal.  This  I  have  had  the  honor  to 
receive  from  the  hands  of  the  Vice- Presi- 
dent of  this  great  Republic.  I  am  no  less 
grateful  for  the  Society's  demonstration 


of  honor  by  electing  me  an  honorary 
member  of  this  the  largest  geographic 
society  in  the  world.  For  this  splendid 
token  of  distinction  I  have  the  great 
honor  to  express  my  very  sincere  grati- 
tude to  the  members  of  the  Society, 
among  whom  there  are  so  many  brilliant 
gentlemen,  famous  for  achievement  in 
scientific  research.  I  see  here  tonight  one 
whom  I  think  I  can  say  is  the  most  ex- 
cellent of  the  scientific  explorers  in  the 
United  States — in  fact  the  most  experi- 
enced scientific  Arctic  traveler  of  the 
day — Commander  Robert  E.  Peary.  I 
thank  you  from  the  bottom  of  my  heart 
and  wish  the  National  Geographic  So- 
ciety all  success. 

THE  TOASTMASTER 

In  the  development  of  geographic 
knowledge  on  this  continent  there  was 
one  nation  that  was  preeminent  in  ex- 
ploring the  vast  interior  of  what  was  a 
great  wilds  only  a  hundred  years  ago. 
The  interior  of  our  country  has  pre- 
served the  names  of  many  of  those  who 
first  explored  it,  and  given  them  to  its 
cities.  Marquette,  Joliet,  and  La  Salle 
will  always  be  famous  as  the  names  of 
French  explorers  who  entered  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Saint  Lawrence  and  passed 
through  the  Great  Lakes  and  down  the 
long  stretches  of  the  Father  of  Waters. 
Now  it  is  appropriate  that  the  ambassa- 
dor from  that  nation  which  had  so  much 
to  do  with  carrying  a  Christian  civiliza- 
tion into  the  interior  of  this  continent 
should  be  here  to  honor  us  with  his  pres- 
ence. He  will  speak  to  the  toast  of  the 
"Northmen's  Travelings." 

THE    AMBASSADOR    FROM     FRANCE, 
HON.    J.    J.    JUSSERAND 

Once  more  a  deed  of  valor,  of  pluck, 
and  endurance  has  been  performed  by  a 
Norseman.  Valor,  pluck,  and  endurance 
are  highly  appreciated  in  America,  where 
so  many  connoisseurs  and  practicers  of 
the  same  exist.  It  is  in  the  nature  and 
fitness  of  things  that  a  Norseman  be  here 
tonight  and  be  applauded  and  recom- 
pensed, as  he  has  been,  not  only  by  the 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


medal,  but  by  the  eloquent  words  pro- 
nounced by  the  Vice-President  of  the 
United  States  and  by  the  President  of 
this  Society. 

Captain  Amundsen  followed  the  ex- 
ample of  his  ancestors.  His  ancestors 
may  be  proud  of  him,  and  he  in  turn  may 
truly,  when  he  goes  back  in  thought  to- 
wards the  origins  of  his  nation,  be  proud 
of  his  ancestors — those  ancestors  who 
started  from  the  distant  north  and  went 
to  nearly  all  parts  of  the  world. 

And  as  in  those  days  all  the  parts  of 
the  world  were  equally  unknown,  as 
there  was  no  National  Geographic  So- 
ciety— we  have  just  heard  that  it  has  ex- 
isted only  twenty  years  and  I  speak  of 
twelve  centuries  ago — in  those  days  when 
the  whole  world  was  unknown,  a  Norse- 
man when  he  started  would  throw  a 
feather  in  the  air,  and  in  the  direction 
which  the  wind  impressed  on  that  feather, 
there  he  would  go  and  discover. 

Starting  thus,  the  Norsemen  went  in 
every  direction,  as  the  wind  and  their 
pluck,  told  them.  They  went  to  Russia; 
they  founded  the  Kingdom  of  Novgorod ; 
they  were  settled  along  the  tributaries  of 
the  Black  Sea.  They  took  service  under 
the  Byzantine  emperors,  and  some  of 
them  stationed  in  Greece  inscribed  their 
names  on  antique  marble  lions,  as  a 
•sentry  would  nowadays  (though  forbid- 
den) inscribe  his  name  on  his  box.  Those 
lions  still  exist,  and  many  of  you  may 
have  seen  them  in  Venice,  where  they 
were  transferred  by  Morosini  in  the  sev- 
enteenth century,  and  where,  sentries 
in  their  turn,  they  keep  watch  in  front 
of  the  Arsenal  main  gate.  They  still 
'"bear  on  their  marble  skins  the  names  in 
runic  characters  of  the  Scandinavian  de- 
fenders of  Byzantium. 

The  same  sea  rovers,  following,  as 
-they  said,  the  "swans'  path,"  the  "whales' 
road,"  went  north  and  went  west,  settling 
in  France,  in  England,  in  Iceland,  and 
•Greenland,  and  visiting  America. 

I  do  not  think  there  is  any  doubt  that 

-the  first  European  settlers  were  men  from 

the  north,  sailing  in  those  long  wooden 

•>boats,  of  which  several  are  preserved  in 

.Norway,   having  been   found  in   tumuli. 


For  some  time  it  was  doubted  that  such  a 
feat  was  a  possible  one;  but  the  experi- 
ment has  been  tried  in  our  days  and  has 
proven  successful.  At  the  time  of  the 
Chicago  Exposition  Norsemen  again 
crossed  the  Atlantic  in  the  same  sort  of 
boat  as  their  forefathers.  An  accurate 
copy  of  one  of  the  viking  ships  dug  from 
the  Norway  mounds,  manned  by  the 
same  number  of  men,  with  the  same 
number  of  oars,  having  the  same  single 
mast,  and  no  deck,  started  from  Bergen, 
crossed  the  Atlantic,  where  it  met  some 
very  rough  weather,  was  for  some  time 
considered  as  lost,  but  it  was  not  lost  at 
all  and  it  arrived  in  New  York  quite 
safely,  the  men  having  never  had  a 
moment's  anxiety.  That  ship  still  ex- 
ists. It  is  to  be  seen  in  Chicago,  and  in 
that  big  city,  where  there  are  so  many 
interesting  objects  to  be  seen,  none  is 
more  interesting  than  this  Norsemen's 
boat. 

It  is  a  great  honor  for  me  to  have  been 
invited  to  address  you  and  invited  in  the 
words  your  President  used.  He  recalled 
in  touching  words  my  compatriots'  con- 
tribution to  a  better  knowledge  of  this 
country.  To  this  there  is  no  doubt  they 
contributed,  and  the  memory  of  such  men 
as  Laudoniere,  Joliet,  La  Salle,  Mar- 
quette,  Bienville,  and  several  others 
certainly  deserves  to  be  cherished,  as 
it  is  by  the  National  Geographic  Society. 
Some  of  the  earliest  maps  of  the  North- 
ern portion  of  this  continent  are  French 
maps,  drawn  by  hand,  and  they  are  pre- 
served at  our  Ministry  of  Foreign  Af- 
fairs, in  Paris.  There  was,  however,  a 
period  in  French  history  when  the 
French  had  a  kind  of  fame  that  now,  I 
dare  say,  they  have  no  more.  At  the 
time  of  my  youth  Frenchmen  were  fa- 
mous for  their  ignorance  of  geography. 
This  fame  we  have  lost,  but  I  hope  we 
have  some  other  kinds  of  fame  to  console 
us  for  the  loss  of  that  one.  For  we  too 
have  since  then  emulated,  not  without 
some  share  of  success,  the  deeds  of  our 
ancestors.  We  have  begun  again  to  dis- 
cover countries.  The  North  has  not  been 
our  special  department ;  it  has  rather  been 
that  of  Norsemen,  of  Americans  and 


HONORS  FOR  AMUNDSEN 


59 


Cooking  vessel  of  the  Eskimo  at  King  Williams  Land  made  from  copper  sheeting  of 
one  of  Sir  John  Franklin's  vessels ;  about  15  inches  long. 

Eskimo  toys;  these  are  all  in  miniature,  the  snow  shovel  being  about  8  inches  long. 
To  the  left  of  it  are  seen  4  dolls  made  from  wood  and  bone ;  then  an  imitation  Krag-Jorgen- 
sen  rifle,  a  spinning  top,  and  a  tambourine.  Lying  at  the  base  is  a  toy  with  which  the  children 
amuse  themselves  by  slinging  the  stick  upward  and  catching  it  on  one  of  the  holes  of  the 
larger  pieces.  Photos  by  Captain  Amundsen. 


6o 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


T3   03 

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HONORS  FOR  AMUNDSEN 


61 


ESKIMO  ENCAMPMENT,  KING  WILLIAMS  LAND 


Englishmen ;  and  let  us  not  forget  that 
young,  elegant  and  plucky  Duke  of  the 
Abruzzi,  a  worthy  compatriot  of  Colum- 
bus and  Vespucci,  and  who  was  recently 
in  your  midst.  Some  new  expedition  led 
through  air  or  through  water,  by  some, 
maybe,  among  the  men  present  here  to- 
night, will  certainly  in  the  near  future 
gain  the  first  sight  of  the  long-sought 
Xorth  Pole.  We  traveled  mainly  in 
•other  lands;  and  many  parts  of  Asia, 
Africa,  and  South  America,  owing  to 
French  travelers,  are  no  longer  a  blank 
on  the  map,  and  "Timbuctu,  the  mys- 
terious," has  no  longer  any  mystery. 

Considering  so  many  expeditions  un- 
dertaken for  the  sake  of  mankind  at  large 
by  men  from  every  land,  undeterred  by 
any  dangef,  one  goes  back  in  thought  to 
the  time  when  mythical  Saint  Brandan, 
the  Celtic  Saint,  started  in  his  leather 
boat  across  the  great  ocean-sea  to  dis- 
cover, and  actually  did  discover,  the 
island  of  Paradise. 

Captain  Amundsen  and  his  peers 
make,  in  their  way,  somewhat  similar 


journeys.  The  Geographic  ,  Society's 
guest  tonight  will  not,  I  am  sure,  con- 
tradict me  when  I  say  that,  amid  the  ice, 
while  enduring  hard  privations  and  suf- 
ferings, he  too  has  discovered  the  island 
of  Paradise ;  for  to  men  of  heart  Para- 
dise is  nothing  else  than  duty  fulfilled. 

THE  TOASTMASTER 

Some  years  ago  there  appeared  in 
public  print  a  book  on  American  institu- 
tions written  by  a  foreigner.  Other  for- 
eigners, especially  English,  had  been  to 
this  country.  They  had  remained  the 
length  of  time  necessary  for  the  arrival 
and  departure  of  a  ship,  and  then  had 
written  works  on  America  and  American 
customs ;  so  when  this  publication  on  the 
political  conditions  of  America  first  ap- 
peared it  was  thought  to  be  a  work  of  the 
same  superficial  character  as  those  that 
had  preceded  it.  But  as  it  was  read  it 
awakened  interest;  as  it  was  studied  it 
commanded  admiration,  and  in  course  of 
time  Bryce's  "American  Commonwealth" 
became  the  standard  text-book  on  the  po- 
litical institutions  of  this  country.  It  was 


62 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


a  leaven  that  was  distributed  at  the  right 
time  and  it  is  now  bearing  a  splendid 
fruition.  Millions  of  young  patriotic 
Americans  have  received  their  greatest 
inspiration  from  that  work.  They  have 
learned  not  only  of  the  strength  of  the 
American  Republic,  but,  what  is  better, 
they  have  learned  from  that  great  work 
its  weaknesses.  Forewarned  is  fore- 
armed, and  today  I  .venture  to  say  there 
is',  many  a  man  in  .the  national  halls  of 
legislation  who  is  a  wiser  legislator ;  there 
is  many  a  man  casting  his  ballot  who 
today  will  cast  it  on  the  side  of  righteous- 
ness and  good  government  because  he 
read  that  work  written  by  a  fair,  im- 
partial, analytical  mind ;  and  the  National 
Geographic  Society  is  glad  to  recognize 
in  that  author  tonight  the  Ambassador 
from  Great  Britain,  who  will  speak  to  us 
on  the  subject  of  geography. 

THE    BRITISH     AMBASSADOR, 
HON.  JAMES  BRYCE 

Mr  Vice-President,  Mr  President, 
Members  of  the  National  Geographic  So- 
ciety, Ladies  and  Gentlemen :  I  thank  you, 
Mr  President,  for  your  very  friendly  and 
cordial  reference  to  myself,  for  which  I 
am  most  grateful.  Perhaps,  however, 
you  will  allow  me  to  enter  a  very  mild 
and  deferential  protest  against  one  term 
which  you  applied  to  me.  No  English- 
man, I  hope,  considers  himself  when  in 
the  United  States  to  be  a  foreigner. 

This,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  is  a  very 
interesting  and  a  very  cheerful  occasion. 
It  must  be  a  cheerful  occasion  to  you  who 
have  just  been  informed  that  your  So- 
ciety now  has  reached  more  than  thirty 
thousand  members,  which  I  think  must 
be  equal  to  all  the  geographic  societies  of 
Europe  put  together.  You  have  an 
abundant  revenue  which  you  well  spend 
on  the  purposes  of  geography.  The  oc- 
casion is  to  many  of  us  particularly  en- 
joyable on  account  of  the  presence  of  a 
distinguished  explorer  from  a  nation 
which  has  great  claims  upon  the  recogni- 
tion of  geographers.  He  is  of  the  nation 
whence  came  the  Icelander  Eric  the  Red, 
who  was  the  first  discoverer  of  America, 


and  who  was  none  the  less  the  discoverer 
of  America  because  he  did  not  know  he 
had  discovered  it.  And  Commander 
Amundsen  is  also  the  fellow-countryman 
of,  I  think,  the  man  who  performed  the 
most  extraordinary  feat  of  daring  and 
endurance  in  the  pursuit  of  geographical 
knowledge  that  the  history  of  the  world 
records,  Dr  Fridtjof  Nansen. 

Nevertheless,  I  always  feel  a  little 
touch  of  sadness  when  I  am  in  a  com- 
pany of  people  devoted  to  geography,  be- 
cause geography  is  to  me  by  far  the  most 
attractive  an'cl  enjoyable  of  all  pursuits, 
and  I  have  a  misgiving  that  I  mistook  my 
vocation  when  I  took  to  history  and  poli- 
tics and  did  not  become  a  traveler  and  a 
geographer.  Is  there  any  study  or  pur- 
suit which  has  so  many  sources  of  enjoy- 
ment and  is  altogether  so  attractive  as  the 
study  of  geography. 

Geography,  to  begin  with,  is  one  of 
those  things  which  everybody  can  follow. 
In  many  branches  of  science  now  the 
amateur  has  a  hard  time.  Science  has 
reached  such  a  point  of  specialistic  de- 
velopment that  an  amateur  has  practically 
no  chance  of  making  discoveries.  But  in 
geography  we  can  all  do  something. 
Everybody  can  do  a  little  bit  of  explora- 
tion, and  make  it  thorough.  I  don't 
doubt  you  all  have  even  done  so  in  the 
case  of  some  part  of  the  country  which 
was  within  your  reach,  and  that  you  have 
succeeded  in  knowing  a  bit  of  the  sur- 
face of  this  earth  better  than  anybody 
else  knew  it  before.  That  is  something 
to  say  in  an  age  like  this. 

In  the  next  place  geography  has  the 
great  attraction  and  the  immense  interest 
of  being  the  meeting  point  of  all  the 
natural  sciences.  Geology,  botany,  min- 
eralogy, zoology,  meteorology,  some 
branches  of  physics,  such  as  electricity 
and  magnetism,  and  of  course  astronomy 
also,  all  touch  and  flow  into  geography. 
It  is  their  meeting  point;  it  takes  some- 
thing from  each  of  them  and  gather 
together  into  one  center  for  its  investiga- 
tions knowledge  drawn  from  these  dif- 
ferent scientific  lines  of  inquiry  which 
bear  upon  the  constitution  of  our  planet. 


HONORS  FOR  AMUNDSEN 


GEOGRAPHY  is  THE;  TELEPHONE;  EXCHANGE: 
OF  THE: 


And,  lastly,  geography  has  the  unique 
interest  of  being  the  meeting  point  of  the 
sciences  of  nature  and  the  sciences  of 
man.  What  is  it,  indeed,  except  a  record 
of  all  those  forms  of  natural  environment 
which  have  made  man  what  he  is  ;  which 
have  guided  his  development  ;  which  have 
caused  the  differences  of  races;  which  at 
every  point  have  influenced  his  march  in 
one  direction  or  another;  which  have 
given  him  the  various  forms  of  institu- 
tions ;  which  have  developed  certain  fac- 
ulties in  certain  races  along  certain  lines, 
and  which  have  impressed  upon  the 
divers  stocks  of  mankind  as  they  stand 
now  that  variety  in  which  the  interest  of 
the  study  of  human  nature  so  largely  con- 
sists. It  is  this  which  makes  geography 
the  center  to  which  the  sciences  of  nature 
on  the  one  hand  and  the  sciences  of  man 
on  the  other  converge. 

Perhaps  the  greatest  progress  that  has 
been  made  of  late  years  in  the  study  of 
history  has  consisted  in  bringing  to  bear 
upon  it  all  the  data  which  geography  sup- 
plies, and  in  showing  how  much  every  na- 
tion has  owed  and  must  continue  to  owe 
to  the  geographical  conditions  under 
which  it  lives.  The  relations  of  geog- 
raphy to  history  make  a  fascinating  sub- 
ject, and  if  we  had  not  many  speeches 
looming  up  before  us  tonight  I  could  will- 
ingly have  followed  it  out. 

There  is  just  one  drawback  or  defect 
which  it  has  seemed  to  me  attaches  to  this 
our  favorite  science.  Its  range  is  limited 
and  is  being  narrowed.  The  field  open  to 
the  geographer  is  no  longer,  as  it  might 
have  been  called  five  hundred  years  ago, 
practically  infinite  and  inexhaustible.  On 
the  contrary,  we  are  using  up  the  world 
very  fast.  I  suppose  some  of  the  mem- 
bers present  remember  what  the  maps  of 
the  world  were  like  sixty  years  ago.  I 
recollect  when  the  whole  center  of  Africa 
was  practically  a  blank.  In  the  middle  of 
it  there  were  marked  upon  the  map  a 
number  of  little  hillocks,  meant  to  indi- 
cate the  mountains  of  the  Moon,  with 
figures  of  lions  and  elephants  scattered 


here  and  there.  Now  the  Ruwenzori  has 
actually  been  climbed. 

I  remember  an  ancient  terrestrial 
globe,  twirling  which  and  poring  over  it 
as  it  twirled  I  spent  many  happy  hours, 
which  showed  for  northwestern  America 
scarcely  anything  except  lines  marking 
the  voyages  of  Cook  and  Vancouver,  and 
for  northeastern  Asia  very  little  except 
the  lines  which  traced  the  voyages  of 
your  illustrious  countryman,  Mr  Am- 
bassador from  France,  the  famous  navi- 
gator La  Perouse. 

But  things  have  been  greatly  altered. 
Now  there  is  no  part  of  the  earth's  sur- 
face about  which  we  do  not  know  a  great 
deal.  Hardly  anything  is  left  for  the 
imagination.  Moreover,  in  those  days 
the  literary  traveler  was  able  to  tell  any 
traveler's  tale  he  pleased.  Those  of  you 
who  have  written  books  of  travel,  and  I 
have  no  doubt  there  are  some  present, 
well  know  what  is  the  temptation  to  the 
author  to  improve  upon  and  amplify  what 
he  has  seen  in  a  little-known  country. 
When  I  think  of  what  that  temptation  is 
and  of  how  often  one  has  to  abstain  from 
exaggerating  and  giving  a  better  turn  to 
something  one  has  seen,  I  feel  like  Lord 
Clive  when,  in  describing  the  enormous 
opportunities  he  had  had  of  increasing  his 
wealth  at  the  expense  of  the  people  he 
was  conquering  in  India,  he  said,  "I  stand 
amazed  at  my  own  moderation." 

The  travelers  of  the  future  will  have  no 
such  chance  as  some  of  us  have  had  and 
some  of  us  have  used,  let  us  hope,  with 
moderation  in  embellishing  the  narra- 
tives of  our  explorations.  I  am  afraid 
that  the  poets  and  all  those  who  need  im- 
agination, who  use  imagination  in 
literature,  must  suffer  where  there  is 
nothing  unknown  left  in  the  world. 
But  we  must  make  the  best  of  it. 
We  must  recognize  that  our  planet  after 
all  is  limited.  What  you  must  begin  to 
do  is  what  has  to  be  done  in  those  parts 
of  the  West  when  the  good  lands  have  all 
been  taken  up  and  when  it  is  impossible 
any  longer  to  get  virgin  soil  for  cultiva- 
tion. You  must  begin  to  apply  intensive 
methods  of  cultivation.  You  must  ex- 
amine all  your  territory  more  thoroughly, 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


applying  all  the  knowledge  you  can  draw 
from  sciences  like  geology,  botany,  and 
meteorology. 

Your  National  Geographic  Society  has 
fortunately  a  very  great  and  wide  field 
open  to  it  on  this  continent  of  North 
America.  You  and  the  Republic  of 
Mexico,  whose  representative,  my  friend, 
Mr  Creel,  I  am  glad  to  see  present  to- 
night, have  on  this  vast  continent  of 
North  America,  as  we  have  also  up  in 
Canada,  an  enormous  field  open  in  which 
to  conduct  a  minute  scientific  study,  and 
the  National  Geographic  Society  may 
look  forward  to  many,  many  years  or  cen- 
turies of  useful  activity  in  tracing  down 
the  geographical  conditions,  the  natural 
history,  and  the  resources  and  the  rain- 
fall and  other  climatic  conditions  of  this 
enormous  territory. 

GEOGRAPHICAL   SURGERY 

You  have  also  a  new  field  open  which 
seems  to  be  one  of  peculiar,  and  indeed 
novel,  interest.  I  do  not  quite  know  what 
to  call  it,  whether  to  call  it  "Remedial 
Geography"  or  "Geographical  Surgery." 
It  is  the  taking  of  the  surface  of  our 
earth  and  executing  upon  it  various  sur- 
gical operations  intended  to  improve  it 
and  make  it  more  useful  for  the  serv- 
ice of  man.  You  have  embarked  in  some 
enormous  works  on  this  continent  of  that 
nature.  You  have  dealt  with  the  lower 
course  of  the  great  River  Colorado,  and 
have  contemplated  the  making  of  an  in- 
land sea  in  a  region  which  lies  a  little 
below  the  level  of  the  ocean  near  that 
stream.  You  are  meditating  an  enormous 
enterprise  in  the  improvement  of  your  in- 
ternal navigation,  proposing  to  construct 
a  great  canal  and  to  improve  that  gigantic 
river  which  intersects  the  middle  of  your 
continent — endeavoring  to  turn  it  into  a 
more  complete  and  deeper  channel  for 
navigation  than  it  has  heretofore  been. 
If  you  accomplish  that  work,  you  will 
have  done  a  thing  of  which  earlier  ages 
might  indeed  have  dreamed,  but  which 
nothing  but  your  wealth  and  the  resourses 
of  modern  science  could  have  rendered 
possible. 

And,  lastly,  you  have  embarked  on  that 
splendid  enterprise  in  the  Isthmus  of 


Panama.  One  may  say  that  all  these  proj- 
ects come  under  the  head  of  what  may 
be  called  "Creative  Geography."  In  at- 
tempting this  creative  policy  you  are 
making  the  world  more  habitable  and 
profitable  for  all  men.  The  world  is  no 
doubt  using  up  its  capital  at  a  very  rapid 
rate.  Everywhere  minerals  and  forests 
are  being  exploited,  perhaps  too  fast  and 
too  recklessly.  Here  the  forests  are  dis- 
appearing swiftly,  and  the  same  holds 
true  of  Norway.  So  both  you  here  and 
we  in  Britain  are  using  up  our  metals  and 
our  coals  very  fast.  It  is  quite  time  that 
scientific  geographers  should  come  in  and 
take  stock  of  these  resources  and  warn 
the  nation,  as  I  am  happy  to  see  that  the 
President  has  already  done  in  very  em- 
phatic, but  not  too  emphatic,  language,  of 
the  necessity  of  conserving  all  your  nat- 
ural resources  and  replacing  those  which, 
like  the  forests,  can  be  replaced. 

These  are  great  functions  for  the  Na- 
tional Geographic  Society.  It  has  a  wide 
and  useful  field  before  it  which  it  has 
shown  that  it  knows  how  to  work  for  the 
benefit  of  science  and  of  the  nation. 

I  appreciate  the  honor  of  having  been 
called  to  address  you  and  I  thank  you  on 
behalf  of  your  guests  of  tonight.  I  will 
venture  to  wish  all  prosperitv  and  success 
to  the  National  Geographic  Society. 

THE  TOASTM ASTER 

The  American  forests  are  under  the 
charge  of  the  Agricultural  Department. 
The  American  forests  include  areas  that 
in  themselves  alone  are  sufficient  to  sup- 
port a  mighty  empire.  The  Department 
of  Agriculture  controls  this  vast  domain, 
conserves  it  and  protects  it,  and  also  has 
many  other  important  functions :  It  fights 
the  ravages  of  insect  pests  that  I  do  not 
hesitate  to  say  would  be  more  destructive 
than  the  ravages  of  the  army  of  almost 
any  invading  foe.  It  guards  the  purity 
of  our  food  supply.  It  studies  the  dis- 
eases of  plants  and  animals  and  checks 
them.  It  sends  its  explorers  into  the  far 
reaches  of  the  earth  to  gather  plants  and 
animals  that  may  be  made  economical 
and  profitable  to  the  American  people.  It 
develops  and  it  teaches  improved  methods 
of  husbandry  that  add  hundreds  of  mil- 


HONORS  FOR  AMUNDSEN 


lions  of  dollars  to  the  wealth  of  the 
American  people.  It  carries  on  many 
lines  of  research.  It  distributes  knowl- 
edge very  much  as  our  own  Geographic 
Society  does.  It  forecasts,  as  you  know, 
the  coming  of  the  wind  and  the  storms ; 
and  it  may  be  interesting  tonight  for  me 
to  say  that  only  yesterday,  as  the  result 
of  one  of  the  lines  of  experimentation 
carried  on  under  the  department,  an  ob- 
servation made  at  an  altitude  of  four 
thousand  feet  at  the  experimental  ob- 
servatory at  Mount  Weather  showed  the 
curious  anomaly  of  38  degrees  tempera- 
ture, while  the  surface  temperature  in 
Washington  showed  only  24  degrees — 14 
degrees  warmer  in  the  upper  layers  of  the 
air.  The  forecast  without  that  upper  air 
observation  would  have  been  snow  to- 
day. But  it  was  apparent  to  the  fore- 
caster that  snow  could  not  come  from  or 
through  that  extremely  warm  stratum  of 
air.  This  is  one  of  the  lines  of  experi- 
mentation that  is  adding  new  knowledge 
to  us  in  a  geographic  sense. 

Now  the  responsibility  for  that  govern- 
ment department,  so  beneficent  to  the' 
American  people  in  all  of  its  purposes,  lies 
in  the  foresight,  the  wisdom,  and  the 
statesmanship  of  the  Senators  and  Repre- 
sentatives of  the  Federal  Congress.  They 
have  never  yet  failed  to  give  their  cordial 
support  to  scientific  researches  when  it 
meant  something  to  benefit  the  American 
people;  hence  the  United  States  Con- 
gress appropriates  money — many  times 
the  amount  of  any  other  country — for  the 
development  and  the  diffusion  of  knowl- 
edge. 

Now  just  a  word,  if  I  may,  because  the 
Secretary  of  that  department  is  not  here ; 
and  that  is  that  that  institution  is  presided 
over  by  the  greatest  practical  as  well  as 
theoretical  agriculturist,  I  believe,  that 
the  world  has  yet  produced. 

Unfortunately  Senator  Beveridge  is  in- 
disposed and  is  unable  to  respond  to  the 
toast  of  the  American  forests.  I  look 
over  these  faces  and  I  hardly  find  one  that 
I  would  call  upon  without  preparation  to 
respond  to  that  toast. 

Briefly,  it  is  certain  that  the  welfare 
of  posterity  depends  upon  the  protecting 
and  conserving  of  these  vast  forest  do- 


mains. They  certainly  do  much  to  aid  in 
restraining  the  floods.  They  may  not 
change  or  alter  the  amount  of  precipita- 
tion, but  without  any  question  they  do 
conserve  that  precipitation.  They  do  re- 
strain the  rainfall  on  the  various  water- 
sheds. They  do  render  less  destructive 
the  floods  that  come  from  a  given  precipi- 
tation. The  meteorologists  are  not  cer- 
tain but  what  the  forests  actually  have  an 
effect  upon  the  thermal  conditions,  and 
therefore  upon  the  rainfall  itself. 

Some  recent  experiments  we  have  had 
made  of  the  temperature  over  the  surface 
of  the  earth  as  modified  by  the  earth's 
covering  have  shown  some  very  startling 
results.  As  an  illustration,  with  con- 
tiguous surfaces  that  were  precisely  at  the 
same  level,  thermometers  exposed  two 
feet  above  the  surface  and  not  a  hundred 
yards  apart  would  show  over  vegetation 
seven  degrees  lower  temperature  than 
over  a  sandy  surface.  Many  times  ther- 
mometers exposed  over  thickly  covered 
vegetation  at  night  would  fall  far  below 
the  freezing-point,  while  the  temperature 
over  the  denuded  surface  would  be  much 
above  the  freezing-point.  Hence  it  may 
be  that  the  forests  themselves,  or  the  de- 
nuding of  the  forests,  have  really  had  an 
effect  on  the  climate  itself.  The  impor- 
tance of  conserving  these  great  areas  is 
conceded  by  nearly  every  one.  I  believe 
the  nation  has  begun  amply  early  by  its 
wise  legislation  to  protect  these  great 
areas  for  the  benefit  of  the  American  peo- 
ple. 

I  remember  hearing  at  one  time  of  a 
banquet  at  which  speeches  were  made 
with  relation  to  the  conserving  of  the 
waters  of  the  Clyde.  At  the  table  there 
was  a  young  American  midshipman,  who 
had  partaken  probably  a  little  more  of  his 
cups  than  he  should  have  done,  so  that  he 
was  not  probablv  as  politic  in  his  remarks 
at  a  foreign  table  as  he  might  have  been. 
He  arose  and  said :  "Gentlemen,  the  Clyde 
would  not  form  a  gargle  in  the  mouth  of 
the  Mississippi."  "  Now  the  Father  of 
Waters  will  be  responded  to  by  one  prob- 
pblv  who  is  better  qualified  to  respond  to 
that  toast  than  anv  other  man  in  the 
United  States,  the  Honorable  Theodore 
Burton. 


66 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


THE  FATHER  OF  WATERS.    BY  HON.  THEo-  those  which  make  for  modern  progress, 

DORE  BURTON  the  Mississippi  far  excels  them  all. 
The  name  "Father  of  Waters,"  or  The  most  notable  characteristic  of  the 
"Father  of  Running  Waters,"  was  first  Mississippi  is  its  infinite  variety,  mam- 
given  by  the  Chippewa  Indians,  located  fested  ahke  m  products,  climate,  soil 
south  and  west  of  Lake  Superior,  because  and  population.  This  is  partially  due  to 
they  regarded  the  river  as  the  greatest  the  fact  that,  unlike  most  of  the  other 
in  the  world.  The  French  explorers  ac-  leading  rivers  of  the  earth,  it  flows  from 
cepted  this  name,  May-see-see-bee,  and  north  to  south>  and  nearly  m  a  direct  lme- 
since  that  day  this  appellation  has  been  This  same  variety  is  exhibited  in  the 
regarded  not  as  a  local  exaggeration  of  motives  and  great  events  which  are 
the  aborigines,  but  as  a  correct  desig-  chronicled  in  the  history  of  its  discovery 


nation  for  this  mighty  river. 


and  the  early  settlement  of  the  valley.   It 


It  is  not  only  customary  but  appropri-  has  been  sometimes  said  that  Vespticius, 
ate  to  speak  of  the  Mississippi  in  super-  in  the  year  1498,  passed  by  the  mouth  of 
latives.  True,  it  is  surpassed  in  some  the  Mississippi,  but  the  records  of  his 

voyages  are  of  such  uncertain  au- 
thenticity that  we  cannot  rely 
upon  them.  Other  Spanish  ex- 
plorers— Pineda  in  1519,  Nar- 
vaez  and  De  Vaca  in  1528 — saw 
the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  but 
did  not  enter  the  promised  land. 
The  first  expedition  to  cross  the 
river  or  travel  extensively  upon 
its  waters  was  that  of  De  Soto; 
his  included  the  flower  of  the 
Castilian  youth,  and  was  actuated 
by  cupidity,  the  discovery  of  the 
Mississippi  in  early  May,  1541, 
being  a  mere  incident. 

Entirely     different     in    nature 


particulars  by  other  streams.     Its  drain- 


ESKIMO COOKING   POT   MADE  FROM    STONE, 
AT   KING  WIUJAMS  LAND 

were  the  French  explorations  of 
132  years  later.  Father  Marquette,  in 
age  area  is  not  so  large  as  that  of  the  1673,  was  moved  by  religious  zeal, 
Amazon  or  the  Nile,  and  is  equaled  if  and  when  ordered  to  proceed  toward 
not  excelled  by  those  of  the  Obi,  the  the  river  wrote  of  "the  happy  neces- 
Congo,  and  the  Rio  de  la  Plata.  There  sity  of  exposing  his  life  for  the  sal- 
are  perhaps  ten  or  twelve  rivers  that  vation  of  those  nations  and  particu- 
carry  to  the  sea  a  greater  volume  of  lad  for  the  Illinois »  He  d  down 
water  han  does  the  Mississippi.  In  the  from  the  mouth  of  ^  ^isconsin  to 
population  of  the  area  tributary  to  it  it  the  mouth  f  h  Arkansas,  starting 
is  exceeded  by  the  Ganges  and  by  at  least  .,,  ...  ' 
one  river  of  China.  The  traffic  that  is  out  wlth  .  thf  suPPosltl™  that  the 
borne  upon  its  waters  is  far  exceeded  by  pat  northerly  portion  of  the  river 
that  of  the  Rhine,  the  Volga,  and  by  flowed  to  the  Gulf  of  California 
other  minor  rivers  of  Europe  and  of  the  or  the  Pacific  Ocean.  His  expedi- 
United  States.  But  in  all  the  essential  tlon  may  be  termed  a  discovery,  be- 
qualities  which  belong  to  a  great  river  cause  'li  established  the  identity 
and  a  great  river  valley,  as  well  as  in  between  the  northerly  and  southerly 


HONORS  FOR  AMUNDSEN 


MONUMENT 


IN     MEMORY     OF     SIR     JOHN 
FRANKLIN 


Erected    on   King   Williams    Land,   where   the 
relics  of  his  party  were  found 

portions  of  the  Mississippi.  Finally,  in 
1 86 1,  we  have  the  voyage  of  La  Salje, 
the  most  untiring  and  enthusiastic  of  all 
the  explorers  of  the  West,  prompted  by 
desire  for  adventure,  by  love  of  trade,  and 
the  wish  to  add  to  the  domains  and  in- 
crease the  glory  of  France.  He  passed 
from  the  mouth  of  the  Illinois  to  the  very 
delta  of  the  Mississippi. 

Time  would  fail  me  if  I  were  to  speak 
of  the  various  influences  of  different  na- 
tionalities on  the  Mississippi  River.  The 
Spanish,  French,  and  English  all  have 
joined  in  giving  its  magnificent  valley 
that  cosmopolitan  population  which  is 
typical  of  strength  and  progress  the  world 
over. 

It  was  inevitable  that  this  splendid 
empire  should  belong  to  one  nation.  It 
was  made  to  be  both  a  geographical  and 
a  political  unit.  In  the  early  days  of  the 
Republic  this  ultimate  unity  was  con- 
stantly kept  in  mind.  When,  later  in  our 
historv,  an  effort  was  made  for  the  sev- 


ESKIMO  AT    HERSCHEL   ISLAND 

erance  of  the  states  bordering  upon  its 
waters,  those  who  made  that  attempt 
stood  athwart  the  pathway  of  destiny. 
Their  embattled  legions  could  not  suc- 
ceed, for  it  was  fate  that  the  valley  of  the 
Mississippi  should  be  part  of  a  united 
whole,  and  that  the  Mississippi  River 
should  flow  on  to  the  sea  through  one 
great  country.  Its  valley  is  now,  and  must 
in  greater  degree  in  the  future,  assume  a 
preeminent  position  as  the  heart  of  the 
nation,  the  source  of  its  great  political 
movements,  and  the  most  progressive 
portion  of  the  globe.  Approximately 
two-fifths  of  the  area  of  the  United  States 
and  half  of  its  population  belong  to  this 
valley. 

NO   LONGER   A    HIGHWAY   OF   COMMERCE 

Among  the  great  problems  of  common 
interest  to  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  val- 
ley, the  foremost  is  that  of  navigation. 
In  the  ante-bellum  days,  the  Mississippi 
was  one  of  the  world's  great  waterways. 
But  for  thirty  years  navigation  there  has 
been  in  its  decadence,  a  condition  which 
has  been  very  correctly  depicted  by  our 


68 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


foremost  American  humorist  in  his  book, 
"Life  on  the  Mississippi,"  written  twenty- 
five  years  ago.  Models  of  boats  have  not 
been  improved ;  towns  have  been  shut  off 
from  connections  by  railway  tracks ;  facil- 
ities for  loading  and  unloading  are 
scarcely  better  than  in  De  Soto's  day ; 
but  with  the  increase  of  transportation 
and  the  recognition  of  the  inadequacy  of 
present  agencies  and  facilities  there  is  no 
doubt  that  the  time  has  come  when  an 
effort  must  be  made  to  restore  this  river 
to  the  position  it  once  occupied  as  a  great 
artery  of  commerce.  And  it  is  perhaps 
not  too  bold  a  conjecture  to  foretell  that 
the  question  whether  transportation  shall 
be  more  and  more  conducted  by  rail,  or 
whether  the  rivers  of  the  country  shall 
bear  an  increasingly  important  part,  will 
be  worked  out  by  trial  upon  the  Missis- 
sippi River  and  its  chief  tributary,  the 
Ohio. 

PREVENTION  OF  FLOODS  BY  RESERVOIRS 

Another  subject  which  will  arouse 
attention  with  reference  to  the  Missis- 
sippi is  the  prevention  of  the  enormous 
floods  which  create  such  devastation  year 
by  year.  Great  progress  has  been  made 
in  this  regard.  The  method  most  relied 
upon  has  been  that  of  building  levees. 
In  this  connection  I  may  say  that  of  late 
a  claim  has  been  made  that  by  the  im- 
pounding of  the  waters  in  the  upper  por- 
tion of  the  Mississippi  and  in  its  tribu- 
taries the  force  of  these  inundations  may 
be  broken.  This  plan  was  dismissed  as 
chimerical  by  the  engineers  of  fifty  years 
ago,  but  it  is  again  worthy  of  careful 
consideration  at  this  time,  since  topo- 
graphical surveys  now  give  a  better 
knowledge  of  the  subject.  That  which 
seemed  entirely  impossible  in  the  nine- 
teenth century  may  be  very  easy  of 
achievement  in  the  twentieth. 

Again,  while  it  may  be  in  part  a  dream 
at  present,  effort  should  be  made  for  the 
clarification  of  the  waters  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi. The  chief  contributor  that 
makes  it  a  muddy  stream  is  the  Missouri, 
and  it  has  been  estimated  that  each  year 
four  hundred  million  tons  of  silt  are  car- 


ried along  the  bed  of  the  river  toward  the 
sea — a  quantity  comparable  with  and  per- 
haps even  greater  than  the  amount  of 
excavation  required  for  the  construction 
of  the  Panama  Canal.  Not  in  a  day,  nor 
yet  in  a  year,  but  in  the  generations  to 
come,  we  may  hope  that  this  river  will 
be  so  bettered  by  the  protection  of  banks 
and  by  treatment  of  soil  in  the  adjacent 
lands  as  to  remove  its  present  quality  of 
muddiness. 

Another  problem  is  the  preservation  of 
forests,  not  only  for  the  sake  of  the  tim- 
ber supply,  but  for  the  moderation  of  the 
discharge  of  waters  into  the  river.  Still 
another,  pertaining  to  many  portions  of 
the  basin,  will  be  the  conservation  of 
waters  so  that  the  lands  where  rainfall 
does  not  now  exist  may  be  so  supplied  by 
irrigation  as  to  open  up  hundreds  of  mil- 
lions of  acres  for  settlement.  With  great 
rapidity  the  resources  of  this  country 
have  been  exhausted.  It  is  now  time  to 
encourage  the  practice  of  economy  and 
conservation.  The  marvelous  wealth  of 
this  valley  should  be  preserved  for  future 
generations,  and  provision  should  be 
made  with  great  care  for  the  maintenance 
of  that  equal  opportunity  which  ought  to 
be  the  birthright  of  every  citizen  of  the 
Republic,  but  which  monopolization  at 
present  threatens. 

I  congratulate  this  Society  for  the  in- 
terest displayed  this  evening  in  the  con- 
servation and  utilization  of  our  resources. 
I  am  glad  to  hear  a  note  of  warning 
sounded,  and  I  hope  that  by  your  activ- 
ities you  may  exert  a  beneficent  influence 
in  this  direction  equal  to  that  which  you 
have  exerted  in  other  branches  of  en- 
deavor. 

THE  TOASTMASTER 

In  creating  the  Inland  Water  Ways 
Commission  for  the  purpose  of  studying 
this  great  project  for  the  improvement 
of  the  Mississippi,  the  President  honored 
this  Society  by  selecting  for  the  Secretary 
of  that  organization  one  who  for  years 
has  been  one  of  the  most  active  workers 
in  this  institution.  I  will  introduce  Dr 
W  J  McGee  to  say  a  few  words. 


HONORS  FOR  AMUNDSEN 


Dr  McGee  outlined  the  objects  of  the 
Commission,  and  referred  to  the  fact  that 
the  present  agitation  to  make  our  rivers 
more  useful  to  the  country  is  the  third 
waterway  movement  in  our  history;  the 
second,  directed  by  Albert  Gallatin  and 
encouraged  by  Thomas  Jefferson  (then 
Secretary  of  State  and  President,  respec- 
tively) 99  years  ago,  unhappily  came  to 
naught ;  but  the  first  agitation,  started  by 
George  Washington  on  the  Potomac 
River,  led  directly  to  the  Annapolis  Con- 
ference of  1786,  and  thence  to  the  Con- 
stitutional Convention  of  120  years  ago, 
in  which  the  Nation  found  being. 

The  toastmaster  then  introduced  Mr 
Goulder  as  follows : 

Some  years  ago  a  young  man  living  in 
the  Lake  region  conceived  the  idea  that 
he  would  like  to  study  for  the  profession 
of  the  law.  Did  he  enter  a  law  school? 
No.  He  shipped  before  the  mast.  He 
sailed  for  two  years  on  a  sailing  vessel, 
learning  every  rope  and  part  of  its  mech- 
anism. From  stoker  to  captain  he  learned 
all  the  various  duties  of  navigating  a 
great  steamship,  and  then  he  began  the 
study  of  law,  and  in  course  of  time  be- 
came the  great  admiralty  lawyer  of  the 
Lake  region.  He  knows  all  the  sailing 
courses ;  he  knows  every  port  and  harbor 
in  the  Great  Lake  region,  no  matter  how 
small,  and  is  himself  interested  in  vessel 
properties.  I  shall  ask  the  Hon.  Harvey 
Goulder,  of  Cleveland,  to  respond  to  the 
toast  of  the  "Five  Inland  Seas." 

THE  FIVE  INLAND  SEAS.    BY  HON.  HARVEY 
GOULDER 

You  have  given  me  a  topic,  fit  subject 
for  a  volume,  embracing  as  it  does  the 
grandest  industrial  help  to  a  nation  and 
to  the  world  which  history  presents.  No 
man  may  contemplate  the  use  of  the  Great 
Lakes,  the  five  inland  seas,  and  their  far- 
reaching  effect,  without  being  inspired 
with  greater  courage  for  the  future  of 
his  own  environment. 

Geographically  speaking,  these  five 
great  inland  seas,  with  their  river  con- 


THE   HEAD  OF  AN   ESKIMO  FISHING  SPEAR 

The  fisherman  thrusts  the  weapon  across  the 
fish's  body,  which  is  held  by  the  three 
prongs. 

nections  and  outlet,  constitute  the  St. 
Lawrence  system.  With  the  exception 
of  Lake  Michigan  they  mark  or  line  the 
boundary  between  us  and  our  friendly 
and  vigorous  neighbor  for  some  1,800 
miles. 

In  1836  the  state  of  Ohio  and  the  ter- 
ritory of  Michigan  nearly  came  to  blows 
about  the  dividing  line  between  them  and 
in  the  proposed  compromise  Michigan  re- 
jected the  upper  peninsula  as  worthless, 
but  she  afterwards  accepted  it.  In  1840, 
when  on  application  of  Michigan  a  bill 
was  before  Congress  for  a  land  grant 
to  aid  the  building  of  a  lock  to  overcome 
the  19  foot  drop  in  water  level  at  Sault 
Ste.  Marie,  Henry  Clay  said  in  a  speech, 
which  defeated  the  particular  bill,  "it  is 
a  work  quite  beyond  the  remotest  settle- 
ment of  the  United  States,  if  not  in  the 
moon." 

It  was  in  1871,  when  application  was 
made  for  a  land  grant  to  aid  a  railroad 
from  the  twin  cities  at  the  head  of  the 
Mississippi,  to  the  head  of  Lake  Superior, 


7o 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


ESKIMO  HUNTER,  KING  WIUJAMS  LAND 

that  Proctor  Knott  ridiculed  Duluth,  the 
future  great  and  Zenith  City  of  the  un- 
salted  seas. 

Last  week,  a  steel  freight  steamer  with 
every  modern  convenience  for  economic 
transportation,  brought  down  from  Du- 
luth through  the  Sault  canal  and  deliv- 
ered at  Buffalo  the  largest  cargo  of  wheat 
ever  carried  by  any  ship  in  the  world, 
422,000  bushels;  enough  to  make  84,000 
barrels  of  flour,  and  at  14  bushels  to  the 


acre,  representing  the  product  of 
30,000  acres,  approximately  50 
square  miles ;  and  I  have  it  from  of- 
ficial sources  that  we  may  take  this 
average.  In  1907,  in  about  232  days 
of  navigation,  Duluth  shipped  in  the 
single  item  of  ore  over  13,000,000 
long  tons,  and  her  sister  city  across 
the  bay  over  7,000,000  tons  more. 

One-third  of  all  the  tonnage  under 
the  American  flag  is  employed  on 
the  Great  Lakes.  As  an  example  of 
the  progress  of  transportation  a 
comparison  may  be  illustrative.  In 
the  last  fiscal  year,  of  ships  of  over 
1,000  tons  custom-house  measure- 
ment, there  were  built  in  other  parts 
of  the  United  States,  18  steel  and 
wooden  steamers,  ferry  boats  and 
schooners,  with  a  tonnage  of  41,355 
tons.  In  the  same  period  on  the 
lakes  there  were  built  40  steel 
steamers,  each  upward  of  1,000 
tons,  and  of  aggregate  custom- 
house tonnage  of  232,366  tons.  It 
may  not  be  out  of  place  to  say  that 
more  than  30  of  these  exceeded 
5,000  tons  custom-house  measure- 
ments. The  custom-house  meas- 
urement, it  must  be  borne  in  mind, 
represents  only  something  more 
than  one-half  the  actual  dead  weight 
carrying  capacity  of  our  lake  ships 
at  the  draft  which  they  can  carry 
through  the  shallower  connecting 
waters  between  the  lakes  themselves. 
Therefore,  it  is  that  a  steel  steamer 
of  the  prevailing  type,  say  from  556 
to  over  600  feet  length,  54  to  60  feet 
beam  and  32  feet  depth  carries  10,- 
ooo,  or  more,  long  tons  of  iron  ore 
on  a  draft  of  a  little  over  18  feet  to  which 
connecting  waters  consign  her,  and  12,- 
ooo  to  14,000  tons  in  such  a  trade  as  be- 
tween Escanaba  and  the  great  steel  works 
at  the  head  of  Lake  Michigan,  in  which 
trade  the  steamer  is  not  required  to  en- 
counter the  restricted  draft  compelled  in 
the  connection  betwen  Lake  Superior  and 
Lake  Huron  and  Lake  Erie,  by  reason  of 
natural  conditions  which  I  have  not  the 
time  to  explain. 


HONORS  FOR  AMUNDSEN 


7l 


Concurrently  have  come  in- 
ventions for  the  rapid  handling  of 
cargo,  so  that  one  of  these  great 
cargoes  of  iron  ore  or  grain  can 
be,  and  some  times  is,  loaded  in 
a  couple  of  hours  and  unloaded 
within  five  hours.  Covering  a 
voyage  between  Lake  Erie  ports 
and  the  head  of  Lake  Superior 
such  a  vessel  makes  a  round  trip 
in  from  7  to  12  days  according  as 
she  goes  without  cargo  one  way 
or  is  loaded  each  way  and  sub- 
ject to  congestion  at  either  ter- 
minal. 

Such  has  been  the  progress 
and  demand  for  transportation 
that  the  railroads  are  so  choked, 
especially  at  their  terminals,  that 
they  are,  and  have  been,  exhaust- 
ing every  device  that  ingenuity, 
involving  concurrence  of  action 
between  railroads  and  shippers, 
can  suggest  to  prevent  mileage 
service  of  the  average  freight  car 
being  reduced  below  the  already 
alarming  point,  said  to  be  within 
past  ten  years  from  30  miles  to 
20  miles  per  day. 

The  Great  Lakes  system  is  fur- 
nishing in  its  cheap  water  trans- 
portation about  one-third  as  much 
ton-mile    service     in    its     eight     months 
season  as  the  combined  service  of  all  the 
railroads  of  the  United  States  in  the  year. 

The  average  ton-mile  cost  by  our  rail- 
roads, which  is,  generally  speaking,  half 
or  less  than  the  cost  in  Europe,  runs  over 
8  mills.  The  favorably  located  and  best 
equipped  may  come  down  to  one-half  of 
this  but  not  lower  unless  we  regard  a  very 
few  exceptional  cases  to  which  a  general 
rule  could  not  be  applied.  The  ton-mile 
cost  in  the  Great  Lakes  haul  is  about  one- 
tenth  the  average  of  the  rail  haul  and  say 
one-fifth  that  of  the  most  favored  rail 
routes  with  the  exceptions  stated. 

While  Henry  Clay  protested,  strong, 
helpful  men  of  business  forced  a  pass- 
age between  the  east  and  the  magnificent 
northwest  of  the  United  States  and  Can- 
ada which  we  see  todav.  The  state  of 


ESKIMO  AT   KING    WILLIAMS   LAND 

Michigan  was  induced  to  take  upon  her- 
self the  building  of  a  lock  at  the  Sault. 
To  accomplish  the  cherished  idea  it  is 
said  that  some  of  these  men  traveled  50 
miles  on  snow-shoes  through  a  winter 
wilderness  to  attend  a  meeting,  lest  the 
project  fail  or  falter. 

It  did  not  fail  because  it  was  the  des- 
tiny of  the  great  American  and  Canadian 
Northwest  to  become  the  chief  grainery 
of  the  world.  It  was  the  destiny  of  the 
United  States  to  become  the  imperial 
factor  in  iron  and  steel  and  in  industrial 
pursuits ;  and  the  destiny  of  the  United 
States  has  never  yet  halted  for  lack  of 
human  instruments. 

So  the  Indian  legend  that  Gargantua, 
the  great  chief  and  demi-god,  when  he 
found  the  waters  of  Lake  Superior  rising, 
put  on  his  great  boots  and  walked  around 


72 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


the  lake  until  he  found  at  the  Sault  that 
the  great  white  beaver  had  built  a  dam, 
and  that  he  kicked  away  the  dam  and 
opened  up  the  intercourse  between  the 
lower  lakes  and  the  great  northwest  is 
not  true.  It  was  those  sturdy  men  of 
Michigan  and  the  East  who,  foreseeing 
the  almost  boundless  possibilities  of  the 
Northwest,  broke  the  barrier  with  the 
prosaic  lock  and  canal  which  ever  since 
their  grateful  successors  have  improved 
and  enlarged  till  now  through  this  gate- 
way in  the  two-thirds  of  the  year  allotted 
to  our  northern  navigation  there  will 
have  passed  in  this  season  of  1907  almost, 
if  not  quite,  60,000,000  tons  of  cargo— 
nearly  four  times  that  through  the  Suez 
and  nearly  six  times  the  estimate  for  the 
Panama  in  its  tenth  year  of  operation. 

The  actual  saving  in  freight  has  in  the 
past  single  year  exceeded  all  the  cost  of 
all  the  improvements  beginning  with  the 
first  lock  in  1855  and  throughout  the  en- 
tire chain  of  lakes.  No  man,  woman,  or 
child  in  this  country  but  has  felt  and  en- 
joyed its  beneficent  influence  and  results, 
while  people  in  far-off  lands  have  been 
distinctly  benefited. 

From  Lake  Superior  comes  this  year 
more  than  40,000,000  of  iron  ore  so  rich 
in  the  metal  that  it  will  produce  more 
than  80  per  cent,  of  the  output  of  pig  iron 
for  the  year  in  this  country,  which  in  turn 
will  equal  or  exceed  the  combined  output 
of  Great  Britain,  Germany,  and  France; 
and  the  blessing  to  humanity,  the  good 
hope,  and.  the  good  cheer  of  it  all  is  that 
all  the  output  of  all  the  countries  will 
be  needed  to  meet  the  advancing  require- 
ments of  the  world.  This  marvelous  de- 
velopment, so  in  its  infancy,  is  due  defi- 
nitely and  directly  to  the  five  inland  seas. 

THE:  TO  AST  MASTER 

The  next  toast  will  be  responded  to  by 
Hon.  J.  Hampton  Moore,  who  is  a  little 
bit  handicapped  in  name,  but  what  he 
knows  about  the  water  arteries  on  the 
Atlantic  Coast  is  not  a  gift.  It  was  ac- 
quired by  long  and  patient  study. 


THE  ARTERIES  TO  THE  ATLANTIC.     BY  HON, 
J.   HAMPTON   MOORE 

In  the  boundaries  of  the  fifteen  states 
along  the  Atlantic  Seaboard  the  East  re- 
tains a  population  of  thirty  millions  of 
people. 

We  have  started  in  the  East  along  the 
Atlantic  coast  what  promises  to  be  a 
great  campaign,  hand  in  hand  with  our 
brother  of  the  middle  and  extreme  West, 
for  the  development  of  the  waterways  of 
this  country.  We  do  not  yet  quite  under- 
stand their  enormous  extent.  We  have 
passed  beyond  the  important  question  of 
forestry  because  we  have  very  few  forests 
left.  They  have  been  denuded  for  the 
purposes  of  the  W^est,  and  we  have  not 
yet  quite  come  to  understand  the  impor- 
tance of  developing  the  waterways  in  the 
East  as  some  of  you  have  been  developing 
them  in  the  West.  But  recently,  by 
reason  of  the  congestion  of  freight  traffic, 
by  reason  of  the  incapacity  of  the  rail- 
roads of  the  country  to  carry  the  product 
of  the  mechanics  of  the  country  and  of 
the  manufacturers  of.  the  country,  not- 
withstanding that  they  are  pushing  for- 
ward with  giant  strides,  and  in  my  own 
city  of  Philadelphia  are  turning  out  eight 
and  nine  locomotives  a  day  from  one  of 
the  great  works  alone ;  notwithstanding 
this  great  development  in  manufactures, 
the  hand  of  the  artisan  and  of  the  laborer 
and  the  mechanic,  combined  with  the 
energy  and  the  capital  of  the  manufac- 
turer, is  exceeding  the  carrying  capacity 
of  the  railroads  and  has  brought  us  to 
a  realization  of  the  importance  of  the 
waterways  as  a  means  of  carrying 
freight,  on  competitive,  or,  if  you  please, 
on  relief  lines.  We  have  talked  recently  of 
the  development  of  an  inland  chain.  It 
is  not  altogether  a  new  idea,  but  the 
movement  to  work  for  it  systematically 
is  of  recent  origin. 

We  believe  that  for  the  purposes  of 
commerce,  as  well  as  for  the  purposes  of 
war,  it  would  be  important  not  alone  to 
great  manufacturing  and  industrial  in- 
terests, not  alone  for  the  purpose  of  car- 
rying commodities  of  heavy,  bulky 


HONORS  FOR  AMUNDSEN 


73 


COAL  FLOATED  DOWN  THE}  OHIO  RIVER  TO  CINCINNATI 

It  cost  one-third  of  a  mill  per  ton  per  mile.     The  illustration  shows  a  part  of  a  single  fleet 
of  barges  containing  60,000  tons  of  coal.     Photo  from  Will  L.   Finch,  Cincinnati 


freight,  but  for  the  purpose  of  carrying 
passengers  too. 

We  should  have  an  inland  chain  of 
waterways  complete  from  Boston,  on  the 
north,  to  Beaufort,  North  Carolina,  on 
the  south,  a  distance  of  something  over  a 
thousand  miles,  with  opportunities  to  go 
inland  at  least  150  miles  ;  these  waterways 
to  be  serviceable  for  canal  barges,  for 
ships  of  commerce,  and,  if  you  please, 
for  ships  of  war.  We  have  been  think- 
ing, as  this  question  has  arisen,  of  the  iso- 
lated long  seaboard,  of  the  property  im- 
periled, and  the  lives  lost ;  we  have  been 
thinking,  too,  of  those  silent  vigils  of  the 
day  and  night  who  constitute  the  life 
guard  of  this  country,  and  who  patrol 
every  foot  of  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  and 
of  our  other  seaboards  while  we  are  snug 
at  home  through  the  wintry  season.  On 


the  shores  of  Cape  Cod  alone,  as  statis- 
tics recently  handed  to  me  show,  there 
were,  during  a  period  of  twenty  years  fol- 
lowing 1 88 1,  as  many  as  one  thousand 
wrecks  of  vessels  carrying  precious  car- 
goes of  human  beings  and  of  freight. 
The  development  of  inland  waterways 
gives  courage  against  the  dangers  of  the 
Capes,  of  the  shoals  of  Barnegat,  and  of 
the  terrors  of  Cape  Hatteras,  now  almost 
a  graveyard  of  the  seamen  of  the  cen- 
turies. 

We  are  hoping  the  happy  time  will 
come  when  the  North  and  the  South  will 
be  united  upon  the  proposition  to  make 
available  for  commerce  and  to  make 
available,  if  necessary,  for  purposes  of 
war,  though  there  will  be  no  war  with 
foreign  powers  while  we  are  represented 
bv  foreign  ambassadors  such  as  sit  about 


74 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


this  board  tonight — in  fact,  to  make  it 
available  for  any  emergency.  The  con- 
struction of  this  great  inland  waterway, 
we  believe,  will  be  productive  not  alone 
of  increased  manufactures,  but  will  afford 
an  opportunity  to  the  cotton  planter  of 
the  South  to  send  his  goods  north  at  a 
cheaper  and  better  rate  of  freight,  and 
will  open  up  the  farm  lands  that  have 
barely  been  considered  in  the  general 
waterway  agitation  up  to  this  time. 

If  you  will  take  your  maps  when  you 
return  to  your  homes  and  draw  your 
finger  down  the  line  from  Boston  to 
Beaufort,  you  will  see  a  water-course  a 
thousand  miles  long,  through  which  you 
could  pass  in  a  small  boat  from  the 
southern  side  of  Cape  Cod,  but  through 
which  no  large  boat  could  pass  uninter- 
ruptedly, because  there  is  not  sufficient 
depth  to  make  it  available  for  purposes  of 
commerce.  There  are  several  strips  of 
land  in  the  way.  Cape  Cod  itself  has  not 
been  cut  through.  But  one  canal  is  now 
being  cut  through  by  the  government  of 
the  state^of  Massachusetts,  and  another 
is  on  the*  plans  for  construction.  There 
would  be  a  saving  of  seventy  miles 
around  the  perilous  shoals  of  Cape  Cod. 
Following  the  course  down  Long  Island 
Sound  you  would  come  from  the  harbor 
of  New  York  through  the  Raritan  Canal, 
a  distance  of  34  miles,  across  New  Jer- 
sey to  the  Delaware  River.  That  canal  is 
entirely  too  shallow  for  commerce  or 
war.  It  should  be  made  deeper  and 
broader  to  meet  the  necessities  of  the  on- 
coming generations.  Pass  on  down  the 
Delaware  to  the  city  of  Philadelphia. 
Pass  Trenton  and  Wilmington  and  come 
to  the  state  of  Delaware,  and  there  you 
strike  the  Chesapeake  and  Delaware 
Canal.  Only  thirteen  miles  of  open 
water-course  would  carry  any  vessel  not 
exceeding  9  feet  in  draft,  out  into  the 
Chesapeake  Bay,  and  on  down  the  Ches- 
a  peake  Bay  to  Norfolk,  and  then  through 
the  Albemarle  and  Pamlico  Sounds  out 
through  the  sand  dunes  of  North  Caro- 
lina again  into  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  You 
speak  of  those  things  that  are  attractive 
to  you  in  your  geographic  studies,  those 


things  that  are  pleasant  to  you  in  your 
scientific  research ;  think  of  this  as  a 
problem  of  the  future;  think  of  this  as 
something  that  will  help  to  develop  this 
country  and  unite  the  sections  in  bonds 
of  commercial  and  industrial  intercourse ; 
in  those  bonds  which  make  for  the  peace 
and  prosperity  of  the  land. 

MEMBERS   AND    GUESTS    PRESENT 

Mr  C.  E.  Adams. 

Mrs  Harriet  Chalmers  Adams. 

Capt.  Roald  Amundsen. 

Senator  and  Mrs  Ankeny,  of  Washington. 

Hon.  O.  P.  Austin. 

Miss  Austin. 

Miss  Bagley. 

Mr  Reid  S.  Baker. 

Mr  and  Mrs  W.  H.  Baldwin. 

Miss  Baldwin. 

Mr  and  Mrs  O.  W.  Barrett. 

Representative  Bartholdt,  of  Missouri. 

Mrs  E.  J.  Bates. 

Dr  and  Mrs  L.  A.  Bauer. 

Mr  George  Herbert  Beaman. 

Mr  and  Mrs  Charles  J.  Bell. 

Mr  Sydney  Bieber. 

Mr  F.  C.  Billard. 

Mr  Frederic  de  Billiets. 

General  John  S.  Black,  President  Civil  Service 

Commission. 

Mr  and  Mrs  John  S.  Blair. 
Dr  Wm  R.  Blair. 
Col.  and  Mrs  Henry  F.  Blount. 
Mr  and  Mrs  Scott  C.  Bone. 
Mrs  Linnie  M.  Bourne. 
Mr  Randolph  Bourne. 

Representative  and  Mrs  Boutell,  of  Illinois. 
Representative  and   Mrs   Sidney  J.   Bowie,   of 

Alabama. 

Mr.  C.  S.  Bradley. 
Mr  J.  A.  Breckons. 
Mr  Robert  Brott. 
Miss  Anna  B.  D.  Brown. 
Mr  William  Wallace  Brown. 
Mrs.  Brown. 

Hon.  C.  Brim,  The  Danish  Minister. 
Dr  Joseph  H.  Bryan. 

Hon.  James  Bryce,  The  British  Ambassador. 
Mrs  Bryce. 

Captain  Buckle,  British    Royal  Artillery. 
Mrs  Buckle. 
Rev.  Dr  S.  J.  Buel,  President  of  Georgetown 

University. 
Representative    and    Mrs    A.    S.    Burleson,    of 

Texas. 

Representative  H.  R.  Burton,  of  Delaware. 
Representative  Theodore  Burton,  of  Ohio. 
Hon.  Y.  Calderon,  Bolivian  Minister. 
Madame  Calderon. 
Mr  Frank  G.  Carpenter. 


HONORS  FOR  AMUNDSEN 


75 


Mrs  Carpenter. 

Col.  Thos.  L.  Casey,  U.  S.  Army. 

Mrs  Casey. 

Mr  W.  L.  Chamberlin. 

Mr  and  Mrs  Robert  Hollister  Chapman. 

Mr  and  Mrs  Melville  Church. 

Miss  Catherine  E.  Cook. 

Mr  and  Mrs  F.  V.  Coville. 

Col.  and  Mrs  Medorem  Crawford. 

Hon.  E.  C.  Creel,  The  Mexican  Ambassador. 

Madame  Creel. 

Mr  H.  McC.  Crist. 

Mr  and  Mrs  Sumner  Curtis. 

Hon.  Josephus  Daniels. 

Mr  and  Mrs  O.  E.  Darnall. 

Mr  William  A.  De  Caindry. 

Mr  and  Mrs.  H.  F.  Dodge. 

Miss  Doyle. 

Mrs  Arthur  W.  Dunn. 

Mr  and  Mrs  John  Joy  Edson. 

Mr  Edwin  Ehret. 

Mr  and  Mrs  F.  B.  Eichelberger. 

Mr  Fred  A.  Emery. 

Miss  Emery. 

Hon.   Charles  W.   Fairbanks,  The  Vice-Presi- 

dent. 

Mr  and  Mrs  David  Fairchild. 
Mr  and  Mrs  R.  L.  Fearn. 
Representative  H.  D.  Flood,  of  Virginia. 
Mr  E.  W.  Foster. 
Hon.  John  W.   Foster,   formerly  Secretary  of 

State. 

Mr  H.  K.  Fulton. 
Prof,  and  Mrs  B.  T.  Galloway. 
Senator  Gamble,  of  South  Dakota. 
Mr  and  Mrs.  Henry  Goldmark. 
Col.  Green  Clay  Goodloe. 
Mr  and  Mrs  Gilbert  H.  Grosvenor. 
Mr  and  Mrs  Harvey  D.  Goulder,  of  Cleveland. 
Judge  A.  B.  Hagner. 
Dr  Arnold  Hague. 
Dr  Albert  Hale. 

Count  Hanihara,  of  the  Japanese  Embassy. 
Miss  Gena  Russell  Harding. 
Representative  and  Mrs  Kittredge  Haskins,  of 

Vermont. 

Mr  Phelan  E.  Haron. 
Miss  C.  L.  Harrold. 
Mr  A.  G.  Heaton. 
Hon.  Hilary  A.  Herbert,  formerly  Secretary  of 

the  Navy. 
Mr  W.  H.  Hesse. 
Hon.  David  Jayne  Hill,  American  Ambassador 

to  Germany. 
Mr  Joseph  A.  Hill. 
Mr  and  Mrs  Frank  J.  Hogan. 
Mr  E.  F.  Holbrook. 
Mr  W.  R.  Hollister. 

Senator  and  Mrs  A.  J.  Hopkins,  of  Illinois. 
Prof.  W.  J.  Humphreys. 
Mr  Frank  Huntington. 
Mr  George  W.  Hutchison. 
Miss  Jessie  E.  Hutchison. 
Mr  and  Mrs  Thos.  B.  Hutchinson. 


Miss  Emma  James. 

Prof.  J.  Franklin  Jameson. 

Mr  and  Mrs  Hennen  Jennings. 

Mr  and  Mrs  Sidney  Jennings. 

Mr  Alba  B.  Johnson,  President  Geographical 
Society  of  Philadelphia. 

Mrs  Johnson. 

Mr  George  H.  Judd. 

Hon.  J.  J.  Jusserand,  The  French  Ambassador. 

Madame  Jusserand. 

Mr  Cyrus  Kehr. 

Mr  and  Mrs  Chas.  E.  Kern. 

Miss  Alice  Kern. 

Mr  and  Mrs  Geo.  A.  King. 

Mr  John  Oliver  La  Gorce. 

Mr  J.  C.  Lake. 

Representative  John  Lamb,  of  Virginia. 

Miss  Lamb. 

Mr  and  Mrs  John  B.  Lamer. 

Abram  Lisner. 

Representative  Littlefield,  of  Maine. 

Senator  Long,  of  Kansas. 

Dr  and  Mrs  Theodore  Le  Boutillier,  of  Phila- 
delphia. 

Mr  Israel  Ludlow. 

Mr  Otto  Luebkert. 

Mr  Nicholas  Luquer. 

Representative  S.  W.  McCall,  of  Massachusetts. 

Mr  H.  D.  McCaskey. 

Mr  F.  R.  McCoy. 

Mr  Arthur  W.  McCurdy. 

Dr  W  J  McGee. 

Representative  W.  B.  McKinley,  of  Illinois. 

Mr  and  Mrs  Geo.  X.  McLanahan. 

Mr  Alex.  McNeil. 

Mr  John  Holmes  Magruder. 

Mr  and  Mrs  Fred  E.  Mann. 

Representative  and  Mrs  James  R.  Mann,  of 
Illinois. 

Miss  Manning. 

Mr  M.  Henri  Martin. 

Miss  Mattis. 

Mr  Harold  May. 

Baron  Mayor  des  Planches,  The  Italian  Am- 
bassador. 

Baroness  des  Planches. 

Mr  and  Mrs  J.  Walter  Mitchell. 

T.  B.  Moenniche. 

Mr  David  Molitor. 

Baron  Moncheur,  Belgian  Minister. 

Baroness  Moncheur. 

Representative  and  Mrs  J.  Hampton  Moore,  of 
Pennsylvania. 

President  and  Mrs  Willis  L.  Moore. 

Prof.  Simon  Newcomb. 

Mr  Crosby  S.  Noyes. 

Mr  and  Mrs  Theodore  Noyes. 

Mr  Isaac  P.  Noyes. 

Monsignor  D.  J.  O'Connell,  President  Catholic 
University  of  America. 

Commander  and  Mrs  Robert  E.  Peary. 

Mr  James  H.  Penniman. 

Mr  J.  W.  Pilling. 

Mr  James  W.  Pinchot. 


76 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


Hon.  Epifanis  de  Portela,  The  Argentine 
Minister. 

Madame  de  Portela. 

Mr  Raymond  W.  Pullman. 

Mr  George  R.  Putnam. 

Mr  Blanchard  Randall. 

Miss  Janet  Richards. 

Mr  F.  A.  Richardson. 

Mr  and  Mrs  George  Robinson. 

Miss  Rodgers. 

Capt.  and  Mrs  Worthington  G.  Ross. 

Mr  Cuno  Rudolph. 

Mr  Edward  T.  Sanford. 

Mr  and  Mrs  Marvin  E.  Scaife. 

Miss  Eliza  R.  Scidmore. 

Representative  Charles  F.  Scott,  of  Kansas. 

Mr  John  S.  Scully. 

Miss  M.  Isobel  Sedgley. 

Miss  Nellie  Sedgley. 

Mr  and  Mrs  Edgar  D.  Shaw. 

Mr  C.  von  Schubert,  of  the  German  Embassy. 

Mr  Theo.  F.  Shuey. 

Senator  and  Mrs  F.  M.  Simmons,  of  North 
Carolina. 

Hon.  O.  Skybak,  Norwegian  Charge  d' Affaires. 

Mr  W.  A.  Slater. 

Mr  Brockholst  M.  Smith. 

Rev.  Dr  and  Mrs  C.  Ernest  Smith. 

Mr  and  Mrs  F.  Carl  Smith. 

Dr  George  Otis  Smith,  Director  U.  S.  Geo- 
logical Survey. 

Mr  and  Mrs  Odell  S.  Smith. 

Senator  and  Mrs  Smoot,  of  Utah. 

Mr  and  Mrs  Edgar  C.  Snyder. 

Major  George  O.  Squier,  U.  S.  Army. 


Mr  and  Mrs  H.  Steenerson. 

Dr  Geo.  M.  Sternberg,  formerly  Surgeon  Gen- 
eral U.  S.  Navy. 

Hon.  Charles  A.  Stillings,  Public  Printer. 

Dr  and  Mrs  Chas.  G.  Stone. 

Miss  Mary  Suermondt. 

Mr  John  Sutcliffe. 

Senator  and  Mrs  George  Sutherland,  of 
Utah. 

Mr  Frank  Sutton. 

Miss  Florence  M.  Taylor. 

Mr  Henry  W.  Taylor. 

Miss  Mary  E.  Taylor. 

Mr  John  Adams  Thayer. 

Mr  W.  B.  Thompson. 

Mr  Theodore  H.  Tiller. 

Hon.  O.  H.  Tittmann,  Superintendent  U.  S. 
Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey. 

Hon.  Leo  Vogel,  The  Swiss  Minister. 

Mr  and  Mrs  F.  B.  Vrooman. 

Mr  and  Mrs  Ernest  G.  Walker. 

Mr  and  Mrs  M.  I.  Weller. 

Mr  Walter  Wellman. 

Mr  C.  T.  Werntag. 

Mr  and  Mrs  Max  Weyl. 

Mr  Odell  L.  Whipple. 

Mr  and  Mrs.  Wm.  Perrine  Van  Wickle. 

Mr  Walter  D.  Wilcox. 

Mr  H.  E.  Williams. 

Miss  Antoinette  E.  Willner. 

Miss  Allison  Wilson. 

Mr  and  Mrs  Jesse  E.  Wilson. 

Mr  and  Mrs.  J.  F.  Wilson. 

Col.  and  Mrs  A.  S.  Worthington. 

Miss  Hallie  L.  Wright. 


THE  RECESSION  OF  THE  GLACIERS  OF 
GLACIER  BAY,  ALASKA 

BY  FREMONT  MORSE,  U.  S.  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY 


ONE  of  the  most  interesting  points 
brought  out  in  our  past  season's 
work  in  Glacier  Bay  is  the  re- 
markable retreat  of  the  glaciers  discharg- 
ing into  that  body  of  water.  The  sur- 
veys made  by  the  Canadian  parties  in 
1894  located  the  fronts  of  the  glaciers  at 
that  time  and  give  us  data  for  an  accurate 
determination  of  the  amount  of  the  re- 
cession, when  taken  in  connection  with 
our  work  this  year  ( 1907) . 

The    primary    cause  of    the    changes 
which    have    taken   place    can    without 


doubt  be  traced  to  the  great  Yakutat 
earthquake  of  September,  1899.  At  that 
time  an  earthquake  occurred  which  was 
apparently  central  in  Disenchantment 
Bay,  or  the  upper  end  of  Yakutat  Bay, 
and  which  upheaved  the  rocks  in  that 
vicinity,  by  actual  measurement,  some  30 
or  40  feet.  In  one  place  it  was  measured 
and  found  to  be  47  feet.  This  great  dis- 
turbance of  the  earth's  crust  profoundly 
affected  the  glaciers  in  Glacier  Bay. 
Previous  to  that  time  for  many  years  the 
excursion  steamers  of  the  Pacific  Coast 


*  From  a  report  to  Hon.  O.  H.  Titt  mann,  U.  S.  Boundary  Commissioner. 


THE  RECESSION  OF  THE  GLACIERS  OF  GLACIER  BAY    77 


Steamship  Company  had  regularly  run 
up  into  the  bay,  and  had  experienced 
little  or  no  difficulty  in  approaching 
within  a  few  hundred  yards,  or  as  close 
as  it  was  deemed  safe,  to  the  face  of  the 


Muir  glacier.  The  earthquake  changed 
all  that.  The  glaciers  seem  to  have  been 
completely  shattered  by  the  shock.  Vast 
masses  of  ice  were  discharged,  which  so 
choked  the  bay  that  it  was  impossible  for 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


steamers  to  enter.  So  also  the  breaking 
up  of  the  ice  masses  seems  to  have  been 
so  thorough  that  great  quantities  have 
continued  to  be  discharged  every  year 
since  then,  and  it  was  not  until  this  sum- 
mer that  the  excursion  boats  were  able 
to  approach  to  within  less  than  from  10 
to  20  miles  of  the  front  of  the  Muir.  The 
steamer  Spokane,  commanded  by  the 
veteran  Capt.  James  Carroll,  succeeded  in 

fetting  up  to  within  about  a  mile  of  the 
ice  of  that  glacier  on  one  of  her  trips 
this  year. 

Formerly  the  Muir  presented  a  per- 
pendicular front  at  least  200  feet  in 
height,  from  which  huge  bergs  were  de- 
tached at  frequent  intervals.  The  sight 
and  sound  of  one  of  these  vast  masses 
falling  from  the  cliff,  or  suddenly  ap- 
pearing from  the  submarine  ice-foot,  was 
something  which  once  witnessed  was  not 
to  be  forgotten.  It  was  grand  and  im- 
pressive beyond  description. 

Unfortunately  the  recent  changes  in 
the  Muir  have  not  increased  its  impres- 
siveness  from  a  scenic  standpoint.  In- 
stead of  the  imposing  cliff  of  ice,  the 
front  is  sloping,  and  seems  to  be  far  less 
active  than  formerly.  Its  shape  is  en- 
tirely changed.  It  is  now  divided  into 
two  branches,  the  two  branches  being 


caused  by  what  were  formerly  two 
"nunataks"  in  the  body  of  the  glacier. 
The  eastern  arm  discharges  but  little,  and 
appears  to  be  nearly  dead.  The  front  of 
the  western  arm  is  in  shape  of  an  elon- 
gated basin,  and,  as  above  stated,  slopes 
gently.  It  is  badly  crevassed ;  a  point  of 
rock  juts  out  at  the  water's  edge  on  the 
west  side  of  the  basin.  This  is  apparently 
the  prolongation  of  a  ridge  which  out- 
crops through  the  ice-field  further  back, 
and  which  will  soon,  if  the  glacier  con- 
tinues to  retreat  at  its  present  rate,  make 
two  arms  of  the  present  western  one.  It 
is  from  this  western  arm  that  the  bulk 
of  the  ice  is  now  discharged. 

That  the  changes  now  going  on  will 
continue  in  the  same  direction  is  by  no 
means  certain.  All  around  Glacier  Bay 
from  Bartlett  Bay  up  into  Hugh  Miller 
Inlet,  and  including  the  Muir  Inlet,  there 
are  evidences  that  there  was  once  before 
a  retreat  of  the  glaciers  followed  by  an 
advance.  Stumps  of  large  trees,  in  situ, 
along  the  shore  line,  testify  unmistakably 
that  for  a  long  period  the  country  was 
free  from  ice,  that  forests  grew,  that  the 
ice  advanced  and  overwhelmed  them,  and 
has  again  retreated.  Who  can  predict 
what  will  come  next? 


THE   NATIONAL   GEOGRAPHIC   SOCIETY 


Friday,  January  31,  1908 — "The  Conserva- 
tion of  Our  Natural  Resources."  Mr  Gifford 
Pinchot,  Chief  of  the  U.  S.  Forest  Service. 

Friday,  February  7,  1908 — "South  Africa : 
The  Natives  and  the  Mines."  Mr  Gardiner  F. 
Williams,  author  of  "The  Diamond  Mines  of 
South  Africa"  and  for  many  years  General 
Manager  of  the  De  Beers  Diamond  Mines, 
Kimberley.  Illustrated. 

Friday,  February  14,  1908 — "The  Deep-water 
Route  from  Chicago  to  the  Gulf  and  its  Con- 
nections." Hon.  Joseph  E.  Ransdell,  Member 
of  Congress  from  Louisiana  and  President  of 
the  Rivers  and  Harbors  Congress. 

Friday,  February  21,  1908 — Hon.  George 
Shiras,  3rd,  of  Pittsburg,  has  accepted  the  in- 
vitation of  the  National  Geographic  Society  to 
address  the  Society  on  some  of  his  experiences 
in  hunting  wild  game  with  the  camera.  Illus- 
trated. 

Friday,  February  28,  1908 — "Holland's  War 
with  the  Sea."  Prof.  J.  Howard  Gore.  Illus- 
trated. 


Friday,  March  6,  1908 — "The  Missions  of 
California."  Hon.  Joseph  R.  Knowland,  Mem- 
ber of  Congress  from  California. 

Friday,  March  13,  1908 — "Arizona — The 
Egypt  of  the  New  World."  Mr  Frederick 
Monsen.  Mr  Monsen  describes  not  only  the 
ancient  ruins,  but  the  country  as  it  is  today, 
with  its  Indian  tribes,  Spanish-Mexican  settle- 
ments, and  American  towns.  The  wonderful 
Snake  Dance  of  the  Hopis  will  be  shown. 

Friday,  March  20,  1908 — "Persia — Past  and 
Present."  Dr  A.  V.  Williams-Jackson,  of  Co- 
lumbia University.  Illustrated  with  unusual 
pictures  taken  by  Professor  Jackson  on  exten- 
sive journeys  through  the  ancient  kingdom. 

Friday,  March  27,  1908 — "The  Geography  of 
the  Sea."  Rear  Admiral  Colby  M.  Chester, 
U.  S.  Navy. 

Friday,  April  3,  1908 — "Cathedrals,  Mosques, 
and  Temples  of  the  World."  Hon.  O.  P. 
Austin,  Chief  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Statistics.  Il- 
lustrated. 


VOL.  XIX,  No.  2 


WASHINGTON 


FEBRUARY,  1908 


THE    POLICEMEN   OF   THE  AIR 

An  Account  of  the  Biological  Survey  of  the  Department 

of  Agriculture 

BY  HENRY  WETHERBEE  HENSHAW 


THE  pursuit  of  science  solely  for 
its  own  sake,  however  commend- 
able it  may  be,  is  not  the  spirit 
that  animates  our  government  in  its 
support  of  scientific  research.  In  its  aims 
and  ambitions  this  is  a  practical  age. 
Thousands  of  men  are  experimenting,  in- 
venting, and  prying  into  the  secrets  of 
nature  for  the  avowed  purpose  of  utiliz- 
ing their  discoveries  for  the  practical 
benefit  of  mankind.  Applied  science  has 
come  to  occupy  a  very  important  place  in 
our  government  institutions,  and  in  none 
is  it  more  important  than  in  the  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture. 

From  small  beginnings,  the  department 
in  little  less  than  half  a  century  has  ex- 
panded in  every  direction,  and  in  the  last 
decade,  under  the  able  management  of 
Secretary  Wilson,  has  grown  to  huge  pro- 
portions. Its  work  is  divided  among 
numerous  bureaus,  each  with  a  distinct 
line  of  research,  and  a  small  army  of  as- 
sistants is  employed,  many  of  whom  are 
engaged  in  various  fields  of  scientific  in- 
vestigation for  the  benefit  of  the  Ameri- 
can farmer. 

It  is  the  work  of  one  of  its  bureaus,  the 
Biological  Survey,  that  concerns  us  here. 
The  Survey  had  its  beginning  in  1885, 


when  its  present  head,  Doctor  C.  Hart 
Merriam,  with  one  assistant,  began  to  in- 
vestigate the  economic  relations  of  birds 
to  agriculture.  The  scope  of  the  field  was 
soon  enlarged  to  include  the  kindred  sub- 
ject of  economic  mammalogy.  In  addi- 
tion to  these  important  subjects,  its  duties 
now  include  the  study  of  the  geographic 
distribution  of  animals  and  plants  with 
special  reference  to  the  determination  of 
life  and  crop  zones,  and  the  supervision 
of  matters  relating  to  game  protection 
and  the  importation  of  foreign  birds  and 

animals. 

I 

RELATION   OF   BIRDS   TO   AGRICULTURE 

When  the  Survey  began  its  work  very 
few  accurate  observations  on  the  food  of 
birds  had  been  recorded.  Most  of  the 
published  information  bearing  on  the  sub- 
ject rested  on  field  observation  only,  and, 
besides  the  liability  to  error  from  faulty 
or  insufficient  observations,  the  data 
gathered  in  this  way  were  entirely  inade- 
quate. It  is  not  enough  to  be  told  that 
birds  feed  on  insects ;  we  must  know  the 
particular  kinds  they  eat.  The  fact  that 
the  crow  sometimes  eats  corn  is  not  suffi- 
cient evidence  upon  which  to  condemn 


8o 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


From  the  Biological  Survey 
FOUR  COMMON  SEED-BATING  BIRDS 
i,  Junco ;  2,  White-throated  Sparrow ;  3,  Fox  Sparrow ;  4,  Tree  Sparrow 


THE  POLICEMEN  OF  THE  AIR 


8 


the  bird.  We  must  learn  the 
nature  of  its  food  at  all  times  of 
year,  and  then  strike  a  fair  bal- 
ance between  its  good  and  its  bad 
deeds;  hence  the  absolute  neces- 
sity for  the  examination  of  the 
contents  of  birds'  stomachs,  by 
which  means  may  be  accurately 
determined  not  only  the  kinds  of 
food  eaten  but  their  relative 
quantities.  This  method  is  ex- 
ceedingly slow  and  laborious,  re- 
quqires  a  high  order  of  expert 
ability,  and  moreover  is  open  to 
the  very  serious  objection  that 
it  necessitates  the  taking  of  use- 
ful lives.  So  far  as  possible, 
the  latter  objection  has  been  min- 
imized by  utilizing  the  stomachs 
of  birds  killed  by  naturalists  for 
scientific  purposes.  This  mate- 
rial, which  otherwise  would  be 
lost  to  economic  science,  renders 
it  unnecessary,  except  in  special 
cases  to  destroy  birds  for  the 
purpose  of  food  examinations. 

In  the  above  connection  it 
must  not  be  forgotten  that  when 
a  thorough  examination  of  the 
food  of  a  given  species  is  once 
made  and  the  results  published, 
the  work  is  done  for  all  time.  The  food 
habits  of  a  species  having  been  once  de- 
termined by  this  method,  no  possible  exr 
cuse  exists,  so  far  as  food  investigations 
go,  for  further  destruction  of  bird  life ; 
and  the  more  so  because  the  contents  of 
all  stomachs  examined  are  preserved  as 
vouchers  for  further  verification,  should 
that  be  deemed  necessary. 

Passing  to  a  consideration  of  some  of 
the  practical  problems  presented,  it  might 
seem  that  the  relation  of  birds  to  agricul- 
ture were  simple,  since  the  question  is 
chiefly  one  of  food.  Do  birds  destroy 
crops?  then  of  course  they  are  injurious. 
Do  they  eat  insects?  then  of  a  certainty 
they  must  be  beneficial.  But  the  problems 
are  not  to  be  settled  in  this  ofT-hand  fash- 
ion. In  reality  they  are  extremely  com- 
plex and  are  to  be  understood  only  after 
much  painstaking  study.  It  has  been 


From  the  Biolqgical  Survey 
SPARROW    HAWK 

Which  helps  the  farmer  by  eating  grasshoppers,  crickets, 
and  beetles  (see  page  85) 


found,  for  instance,  that  a  bird  may  be  in- 
jurious at  one  time  and  not  another.  In 
one  region  it  may  be  a  pest  and  in  another 
an  unmixed  blessing.  Some  birds — un- 
fortunately not  many — are  always  bene- 
ficial. Others — fortunately  not  many — 
are  always  and  everywhere  injurious. 
But  the  great  bulk  of  birds  are  both  harm- 
ful and  beneficial  by  turns,  according  to 
age,  season  of  the  year,  the  presence  or 
absence  of  their  natural  food,  and  a  va- 
riety of  circumstances. 

THE:    TREK    SPARROWS   VERY    BENEFICIAL 

For  present  purposes  we  may  roughly 
group  the  bulk  of  our  small  birds  into  two 
classes  —  seed-eaters  and  insect-eaters. 
The  seed-eaters,  mostly  of  the  sparrow 
family,  have  stout  bodies  and  strong  coni- 
cal bills,  expressly  designed  for  crushing 
seeds.  Their  name  is  legion  and  the 


82 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


From  the  Biological  Survey 
A  USEFUL  BIRD  OF  PREY 

Swainson  hawk.     This  bird  saves  the  western  farmer 
$100,000  a  year  (see  page  85) 

family  contains  more  species  than  any 
other  group  of  birds.  It  is  well  that  this  is 
so,  for  the  destruction  of  weed  seed  is  of 
tremendous  importance  to  the  farmer, 
whose  trouble  to  keep  ahead  of  the  weeds, 
great  as  it  is  now,  would  be  vastly  in- 
creased were  it  not  for  the  soberly  clad 
and  unobstrusive  little  sparrows.  We 
may  get  an  idea  of  the  value  of  the  serv- 
ice these  birds  render  by  noting  what  is 
done  for  the  farmer  by  the  tree-sparrow, 
one  of  the  most  confirmed  seed-eaters  of 
the  group.  A  quarter  of  an  ounce  of 
seed  per  day  is  a  safe  estimate  of  the  food 
of  an  adult  tree-sparrow.  On  this  reckon- 
ing, in  a  state  like  Iowa,  where  agricul- 
ture is  relatively  very  important,  tree- 
sparrows  annually  eat  about  875  tons  of 
weed  seed : 

The  total  value  of  the  principal  field 
crops  of  the  United  States  for  the  year 
1906  was  about  $3,500,000,000.  If  we 
estimate  that  the  combined  consumption 


of  weed  seed  by  the  sparrow 
family  results  in  an  annual  saving 
of  only  i  per  cent  of  the  value  of 
the  crops,  the  sum  total  saved  to 
the  farmer  in  1906  was  $35,- 
000,000. 

Though  seeds  form  the  chief 
part  of  the  subsistence  of  spar- 
rows, the  destruction  of  seeds  is 
by  no  means  all  we  have  to  thank 
these  birds  for.  They  eat  many 
insects  also,  and  seem  to  know 
instinctively  that  while  seeds  are 
excellent  food  for  adult  birds, 
they  are  not  necessarily  good  for 
nestlings,  and  hence  feed  the  lat- 
ter almost  exclusively  on  insects. 
Sparrows,  however,  are  not  the 
only  birds  that  consume  the  seeds 
of  weeds.  The  eastern  quail  or 
bobwhite  is  a  confirmed  eater  of 
weed  seeds.  Highly  exteemed  as 
bobwhite  is  by  the  epicure  for 
food  and  by  the  sportsman  as  an 
object  of  pursuit,  he  is  probably 
worth  so  much  more  as  a  weed- 
destroyer  that  the  farmer  can  ill 
afford  to  have  him  shot,  even 
though  the  privilege  is  roundly 
paid  for.  A  bevy  or  two  of  quail 
on  a  farm  is  an  asset  the  value  of 
which  no  thrifty  farmer  should 
overlook.  Doves  also  are  seed 
eaters,  especially  the  turtle-dove,  whose 
crop  often  is  so  packed  with  the  seeds  of 
weeds  that  it  can  hold  no  more. 

The  farmer  has  no  quarrel  with  birds 
that  confine  their  attention  to  grass  and 
weed  seeds,  and  welcomes  their  presence 
always  and  everywhere.  There  are  birds, 
however,  which  eat  such  seeds  as  corn, 
wheat,  and  barley,  and  whose  place  in  the 
farmer's  esteem  is  by  no  means  so  well 
assured — the  crow  and  the  blackbirds  for 
instance.  There  are  several  kinds  of 
blackbirds  which  at  times  attack  crops  as 
also  does  the  crow.  The  destruction  by 
the  crow  of  meadow  mice,  and  of  cut- 
worms and  other  insect  pests  and  the  de- 
struction of  many  kinds  of  insects  by  the 
blackbirds,  however,  are  considered  in 
most  localities  to  offset  all  damage  done 
in  other  ways  and  even  to  leave  a  balance 
in  favor  of  the  birds. 


THE  POLICEMEN  OF  THE  AIR 


From  the  Biological  Survey 
CACTUS    WREN 
A  common  desert  bird  of  the  southwestern  United  States 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


From  the  Biological  Survey 


GOLDEN 


The  most  widely  distributed  of  the  eagles.  It  ranges  over  most  of  North  America  and  a 
large  part  of  the  old  world.  In  sections  of  California  the  Golden  Eagle  feeds  on  ground 
squirrels  and  is  wholly  beneficial,  while  in  some  other  parts  of  its  range  it  feeds  on  lambs  and 
wild  game  and  is  a  noxious  species. 


THE  POLICEMEN  OF  THE  AIR 


BIRDS    THAT    EAT    INSECTS 

Many  birds,  as  flycatchers, 
warblers,  swallows,  and  chimney- 
swifts,  live  exclusively,  or  almost 
so,  on  insects,  and  very  many 
more,  as  blackbirds,  orioles,  and 
some  hawks,  depend  on  them  for 
a  considerable  part  of  their  liveli- 
hood. The  little  sparrow-hawk 
lives  very  largely  upon  grasshop- 
pers, crickets,  and  beetles,  and 
even  one  of  the  larger  hawks — 
the  Swainson  hawk  of  the  west- 
ern plains — at  certain  seasons  de- 
stroys enough  of  these  injurious 
insects,  together  with  small  ro- 
dents, to  save  the  western  farmer 
upwards  of  a  hundred  thousand 
dollars  a  year. 

If  all  insects  preyed  upon  vege- 
tation, our  inquiry  into  the  value 
of  insect-eating  birds  need  go  no 
further,  since  all  of  them  might 
be  set  down  as  beneficial ;  but  by 
no  means  all  insects  are  destruc- 
tive of  vegetation,  and  their  relations  to 
each  other  and  to  birds  are  very  complex 
and  puzzling.  The  insects  that  feed  on 
vegetation  at  some  stage  or  other  of  their 
existence  probably  outnumber  all  others, 
both  in  number  of  species  and  of  indi- 
viduals ;  but  there  are  two  other  classes 
of  insects  which  deserve  attention  here, 
the  predaceous  and  the  parasitic.  The 
predaceous  insects,  either  in  the  adult  or 
larval  state,  feed  upon  other  insects  and 
hence  in  the  main  are  beneficial.  It 
would  seem,  therefore,  that  in  so 
far  as  birds  destroy  predaceous  insects 
they  do  harm.  That  birds  do  destroy 
a  greater  or  less  number  cannot  be 
denied,  but  as  many  species  of  this 
group  secrete  nauseous  fluids,  which 
serve,  in  a  measure  at  least,  to  protect 
them,  and  as  many  are  of  retiring  habits 
and  not  readily  found,  the  number  de- 
stroyed by  birds  is  relatively  not  large. 
Moreover,  some  of  the  predaceous  in- 
sects, when  insect  food  is  not  available, 
become  vegetarians,  and  hence  assume 
the  role  of  enemies  of  the  farmer ;  so  that 
when  birds  destroy  predaceous  insects 


From  the  Biological  Survey 


A    BARRED 


they  may  be  doing  the  farmer  either  a 
good  turn  or  an  ill  turn,  according  to  cir- 
cumstances. 

The  relation  of  birds  to  the  so-called 
parasitic  insects  is  still  more  intricate  and 
puzzling.  Parasitic  insects  fill  a  very  im- 
portant place  in  the  economy  of  nature; 
it  is  even  claimed  by  entomologists  that 
they  do  more  effective  service  in  aiding 
to  keep  true  the  balance  in  the  insect 
world  than  any  other  agency.  They  at- 
tack insects  in  every  stage  of  existence 
and  insure  their  destruction  by  depositing 
eggs  on,  or  in,  the  bodies  of  adults,  their 
larvae  (the  worm  or  caterpillar  stage), 
their  pupae,  or  their  eggs.  Now,  birds 
recognize  no  fine  distinctions  in  the  insect 
world.  All  is  grist  that  comes  to  the 
avian  mill,  and  parasitic  insects  are 
snapped  up  by  birds  without  the  slightest 
regard  to  the  fact  that  they  are  useful  to 
man.  Hence  we  have  a  complicated 
problem  to  unravel  in  respect  to  the  inter- 
relation of  insect  pests,  of  insect  parasites 
that  destroy  them,  and  of  birds  that  de- 
stroy both  pests  and  their  parasites.  As 
Swift  phrases  it  : 


86 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


Photo  from  the  Biological   Survey 

A  MONUMENT  TO  THE  INDUSTRY  OF  BARN  OWLS 
Field  Mouse  skulls  found  under  owl  roost  in  Smithsonian  tower,  Washington  (see  page  87) 


So,  naturalists  observe,  a  flea 
Has  smaller  fleas  that  on  him  prey; 
And  these  have  smaller  still  to  bite  'em, 
And  so  proceed  ad  infinitum. 

After  due  recognition  of  the  part  in- 
sect parasites  play  in  the  economy  of 
nature,  it  is  evident  that,  unassisted,  they 
are  unequal  to  the  task  of  keeping  insect 
life  in  a  proper  state  of  equilibrium.  In 
this  work  birds  play  an  important,  though 
it  may  be  relatively  a  somewhat  sub- 
ordinate part.  Had  parasitic  and  pre- 
daceous  insects  been  equal  to  the  task  of 
holding  in  check  insect  pests,  there  would 
be  no  place  in  the  world  for  insect-eating 
birds.  In  the  progress  of  evolution,  how- 
ever, long  after  insects  and  insect  para- 
sites appeared,  birds  found  a  place  va- 
cant, which  even  their  reptilian  ancestors 
had  not  been  able  to  occupy,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  fill  it.  Having  once  gained  a 
place  in  the  world,  birds  entered  into  a 
competitive  struggle  with  each  other  and 
with  other  insect-eaters.  In  the  course  of 
time  they  developed  into  a  great  number 
of  families,  each  distinguished  by  pecul- 
iarities of  form,  plumage,  and  habits,  and 
each  endowed  with  methods  of  its  own  in 
the  pursuit  of  food.  That  so  many  birds 
are  insect-eaters  is  an  index  alike  of  the 
enormous  reproductive  capacity  of  insects 


and  the  inadequacy  of  the  forces  that 
warred  on  insects  before  the  advent  of 
birds. 

HAWKS    AND    OWLS    ARE}    NOT    MARAUDERS 
BUT    MOST   BENEFICIAL 

The  popular  idea  regarding  hawks  and 
owls  is  that  they  are  nothing  but  robbers 
and  bold  marauders.  Their  real  charac- 
ter and  the  nature  of  their  services  to 
man  are  generally  overlooked.  The  fact 
is  that  the  great  majority  of  our  hawks 
and  owls  are  beneficial,  and  spend  the 
greater  part  of  their  lives  in  killing  small 
rodents,  most  of  which  are  always  and 
everywhere  noxious.  Hawks  and  owls 
are  long-lived  birds,  as  birds  go,  and  this 
fact  gives  a  hint  of  their  importance  in 
the  eyes  of  nature  and  of  their  value  as 
servants  of  man. 

The  work  of  hawks  and  owls  is  com- 
plementary. All  hawks  are  diurnal,  and 
hunt  their  prey  between  the  hours  of  day- 
light and  dark.  Owls,  on  the  contrary, 
are  chiefly  nocturnal,  but  do  much  of 
their  hunting  in  the  early  evening  and 
morning  hours,  or  by  moonlight,  and 
when  pressed  by  hunger  or  when  feeding 
young,  they  sometimes  hunt  by  day. 
Hence,  between  them,  hawks  and  owls 


THE  POLICEMEN  OF  THE  AIR 


Photo  from  the  Biological   Survey 
THROWN   UP  BY  OWLS,  CONTAINING  BONES  AND  HAIR  OF  MICE,  NATURAL  SIZE 


are  on  duty  throughout  the  24  hours,  and 
thus  are  enabled  to  prey  on  all  kinds  of 
rodents,  large  and  small,  those  which  are 
abroad  by  night  as  well  as  those  active  by 
day. 

The  bulk  of  the  depredations  on  birds 
and  chickens  due  to  hawks  is  committed 
by  three  species — the  Cooper  and  sharp- 
shinned  hawks  and  the  goshawk ;  and  the 
sportsman  and  farmer's  boy  should  learn 
to  know  these  daring  robbers  by  sight,  so 
as  to  kill  them  whenever  possible.  The 
so-called  "hen-hawks,"  usually  either  the 
red-shouldered  or  red-tail  hawk,  are  too 
often  made  victims  of  a  bad  name;  for 
while  both  species  occasionally  snatch  a 
chicken,  the  habit  is  far  too  uncommon  to 
justify  the  name  "hen-hawk."  The  good 
these  two  big  hawks  do  in  the  long  run 
by  destroying  rats  and  mice  far  more 
than  compensates  the  farmer  for  the  in- 
significant damage  he  suffers  at  their 
talons. 


CURIOUS     METHODS     OF     DIGESTION 

Both  hawks  and  owls  often  swallow 
their  prey  entire  or  in  large  fragments,, 
together  with  the  bones,  hair,  and  even 
some  of  the  feathers.  Avian  digestion  is 
both  good  and  rapid,  but  it  is  unequal  to- 
the  task  of  assimilating  such  substances, 
and  accordingly  both  hawks  and  owls 
throw  up  these  rejecta  in  the  form  of 
neatly  rolled  pellets.  In  studying  the 
food  habits  of  birds  of  prey  much  use  is 
made  of  these  pellets,  and  the  vicinity  of 
a  nest  of  a  pair  of  horned  owls,  for  in- 
stance, often  contains  an  unmistakable 
record  of  the  birds'  food,  and  perhaps 
that  of  the  young,  for  months  or  even 
years. 

From  the  foregoing  it  will  at  once  ap- 
pear that  the  practice  of  offering  bounties 
indiscriminately  for  the  heads  of  hawks 
and  owls,  as  has  been  done  by  some 
states,  is  a  mistake,  and  results  not  only 


88 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


in  the  wasting  of  public  funds,  but  in  the 
destruction  of  valuable  lives,  which  can 
be  replaced,  if  at  all,  only  with  great  diffi- 
culty and  after  the  lapse  of  a  term  of 
years.  In  no  one  particular  does  the 
public,  especially  the  sportsman  and 
farmer,  need  to  be  educated  more  than  in 
the  value  of  hawks.  The  temptation  to 
shoot  a  hawk  or  owl,  perching  or  flying, 
is  well  nigh  irresistible,  and  the  bad 
habit  is  having  the  natural  result  of  so 
reducing  the  numbers  of  these  birds  as 
to  make  it  impossible  for  the  survivors  to 
do  the  work  nature  intended  them  to  do. 
The  notable  increase  of  noxious  rodents 
in  the  last  decade  in  certain  parts  of  the 
United  States  and  the  resulting  damage 
to  crops  without  doubt  are  due  in  no 
small  part  to  the  destruction  of  their 
natural  enemies,  chief  of  which  are  the 
birds  of  prey. 

When  the  public  is  fully  informed  as  to 
the  value  of  hawks  and  owls  and  an  en- 


From  the  Biological  Survey 

THREE-TOED   WOODPECKER 
A  conservator  of  the  northern  forests 


lightened  sentiment  is  exerted  in  their 
behalf,  they  will  increase  in  numbers  and 
the  damage  to  crops  from  noxious  mam- 
mals will  correspondingly  diminish. 

THE    POUCEMEN    OF    THE    AIR 

Differing  widely  as  they  do  in  struc- 
ture and  habits,  birds  collectively  are  able 
in  man's  interests  to  police  earth,  air,  and 
water.  The  thrushes  and  other  ground 
feeders  scour  the  surface  of  the 
earth  and  hunt  under  leaves  for  hid- 
den insects.  The  warblers,  titmice,  nut- 
hatches, creepers,  and  others  search 
among  the  foliage  and  in  the  crevices  of 
bark  for  all  manner  of  creeping  things. 
The  woodpeckers,  a  highly  specialized 
group,  perform  a  service  no  other  birds 
are  equal  to,  since  with  their  specially 
designed  chisels  they  dig  into  wood  and 
drag  forth  the  hidden  larvae  that  prey  on 
our  forest  monarchs.  The  flycatchers 
from  their  perches  dash  out  for 
their  prey  as  it  flies  from  bush  to 
bush  or  tree  to  tree,  while  the 
swallows  and  swifts  skim  the  air, 
and  with  intricate  evolutions  snap 
up  such  insects  as  have  escaped 
the  active  search  of  their  breth- 
ren nearer  earth.  The  waters  too 
and  their  shores  have  their 
feathered  denizens  which  exact 
special  tribute  of  the  insect 
world. 

So  that,  quite  aside  from  ques- 
tions of  sentiment,  birds  must  be 
adjudged  to  play  an  active  and 
important  part  in  keeping  na- 
ture's balance  true.  Their  role  is 
all  the  more  important,  since  no 
Dther  creatures  are  fitted  for  their 
special  duties.  Moreover,  if  we 
may  judge  the  future  by  the  past, 
the  services  of  birds  must  become 
increasingly  valuable  as  time 
goes  on.  Agriculture,  always  im- 
portant in  the  United  States,  is 
constantly  assuming  greater  im- 
portance. The  stream  of  immi- 
gration from  the  Old  World  and 
the  steady  increase  of  our  own 
millions  mean  an  ever-augment- 
ing consumption  of  food  at  home, 
while  the  demand  from  abroad 


THE  POLICEMEN  OF  THE  AIR 


for  American  foodstuffs  never 
ceases  for  a  moment.  To  sup- 
ply this  triple  demand,  better 
methods  of  tillage  must  be  de- 
vised and  more  and  more  acre- 
age must  be  devoted  to  agri- 
culture. In  part  this  need  of 
creased  acreage  is  to  be  met  by 
irrigation  projects,  which 
when  they  materialize  will 
make  available  for  farms  and 
homes  millions  of  acres  of 
sterile  desert. 

WITHOUT  BIRDS  SUCCESSFUL 
AGRICULTURE  WOULD  BE  IM- 
POSSIBLE. 

But  increased  acreage  and 
larger  crops  mean  a  vast  in- 
crease of  insect  life  as  the  re- 
sult of  a  more  constant  and 
abundant  supply  of  food. 
Even  now,  despite  the  inces- 
sant warfare  waged  against 
them,  insects  are  not  diminish- 
ing in  numbers.  On  the  con- 
trary, in  many  localities  they 
are  increasing.  Especially  are 
new  pests  finding  their  way 
into  the  country,  and  as  these  usually 
are  unaccompanied  by  the  enemies 
which  keep  them  in  check  at  home, 
they  frequently  run  riot  in  the  new- 
these  usually  are  unaccompanied  by  the 
enemies  which  keep  them  in  check  at 
home,  they  frequently  run  riot  in  the  new- 
found Paradise.  Well-known  instances 
are  the  cotton  boll  weevil  and  the  gypsy 
and  brown-tailed  moths.  It  is  estimated 
by  entomologists  that  the  annual  loss  of 
agricultural  products  from  insect  ravages 
in  the  United  States  is  not  less  than 
$500,000,000.  To  birds,  then,  we  must 
look  for  allies  in  the  continuous  warfare 
against  insect  pests,  and  if  they  are  to 
play  even  the  same  relative  part  in  the 
future  as  they  have  in  the  past,  they 
should  not  only  be  protected,  but  de- 
termined efforts  should  be  made  to  in- 
crease their  numbers  and  make  their 
work  more  effective. 

What   would   happen   were   birds   ex- 
terminated no  one  can  foretell  with  abso- 


From  the  Biological  Survey 

CLARK  CROW 

A  bird  of  the  high  pine  forests  in  the  Rocky  mountains 


lute  certainty,  but  it  is  more  than  likely- 
nay,  it  is  almost  certain — that  within  a 
limited  time  not  only  would  successful 
agriculture  become  impossible,  but  the  de- 
struction of  the  greater  part  of  vegeta- 
tion would  follow.  It  is  believed  that  a 
permanent  reduction  in  the  numbers  of 
our  birds,  even  if  no  species  are  actually 
exterminated,  will  inevitably  be  followed 
by  disastrous  consequences. 

The  strict  enforcement  of  bird-protec- 
tion laws  is  the  more  important,  since  of 
recent  years  thousands  of  immigrants 
from  the  south  of  Europe  have  reached 
our  shores  who  appear  to  be  wholly 
ignorant  of  the  value  of  birds  to  man  ex- 
cept for  food,  and  who  exhibit  a  total  dis- 
regard for  the  spirit  of  bird  laws,  and 
little  for  the  letter,  except  in  so  far  as  in- 
fraction brings  sure  and  swift  punish- 
ment. In  the  eyes  of -many  of  these  re- 
cent comers,  no  bird  is  too  small  to  serve 
as  food ;  no  bird  too  valuable  to  serve  as 
a  mark  for  the  gun.  Birds'  songs  have 


9° 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


THE  POLICEMEN  OF  THE  AIR 


91 


no  purpose  in  their  ears  but  to  indicate 
the  whereabouts  of  their  victims.  Hunt- 
ing small  birds  with  them  is  a  passion. 
Unless  speedy  cognizance  is  taken  of  the 
tendencies  of  this  rapidly  increasing  class 
of  immigrants,  some  of  our  most  valua- 
ble song  and  insect-eating  birds  will  be 
in  clanger  of  extermination. 

It  should  arouse  a  feeling  of  pride  in 
Americans  that  our  Republic  has  taken  a 
foremost  place  among  the  nations  that 
care  for  and  protect  birds.  Much  has 
already  been  accomplished  in  this  country 
in  the  cause  of  bird  protection,  but  much 
still  remains  to  be  done.  So  long  as 
dead  birds  for  hat  gear  are  valued  at  a 
higher  rate  than  living  birds,  and  so 
long  as  game  birds  count  for  more  in  the 
way  of  sport  and  food  than  as  active 
working  friends  of  the  farmer,  so  long 
will  there  be  missionary  work  to  do  for 
such  organizations  as  the  Biological 
Survey  and  Andubon  Societies. 

MANY  OF  THE:  SMALL   MAMMALS  BECOME) 
PESTS 

The  relations  of  mammals  to  agricult- 
ure are  very  different  from  those  of 
birds.  Most  birds,  as  has  been  shown,  are 
beneficial,  even  those  with  injurious  hab- 
its, as  a  rule,  compensating  in  whole  or  in 
part  for  the  damage  they  do.  Such  is 
by  no  means  the  case  with  mammals.  As 
a  result  of  the  investigations  of  the 
Biological  Survey,  some  of  our  common 
mammals  indeed  have  been  found  to 
perform  valuable  service  to  man.  To 
this  class  belong  the  bats,  moles,  and 
shrews,  which  are  insectivorous ;  the  bad- 
ger, which  is  an  indefatigable  mouser 
when  it  cannot  find  larger  game  in  the 
shape  of  prairie  dogs  and  similar  rodents  ; 
and  the  skunks  and  weasels,  which  de- 
stroy vast  numbers  of  insects  as  well  as 
mice.  The  fox,  wild-cat,  ring-tailed 
civet,  and  opossum  also  are  believed  to  be 
useful  in  the  main,  as  they  eat  many  in- 
sects and  small  rodents  and  by  no  means 
destroy  as  much  game  as  is  popularly 
supposed.  Reynard's  raids  on  the  poultry 
yard  are  not  common,  and  they  are  so 
easily  guarded  against  that  they  should 
count  but  little  in  the  scale  against  him. 


Even  coyotes  when  they  follow  their 
natural  bent  perform  an  important  ser- 
vice— they  keep  down  the  number  of 
rabbits,  which  constitute  their  natural 
prey.  Unfortunately,  however,  the  coy- 
ote early  contracted  a  taste  for  mutton, 
and  in  some  regions  successful  sheep- 
raising  is  practically  impossible  because 
of  its  destructive  raids.  Experiments  are 
being  made  by  the  Biological  Survey 
and  Forest  Service  to  discover  a  cheap 
method  of  fencing  by  means  of  which  dep- 
redations on  sheep  may  be  prevented. 
Effective  fencing  of  sheep  against  coy- 
otes will  compel  these  animals  once  more 
to  rely  for  food  chiefly  on  rabbits,  prairie 
dogs,  and  other  destructive  rodents. 

When  all  has  been  said,  however,  the 
list  of  our  wild  mammals  that  are  of 
essential  service  to  man  is  comparatively 
small,  even  if  we  include  in  it  a  number 
which  are  harmful  and  beneficial  by 
turns,  like  minks,  coyotes,  foxes,  and 
others,  compared  to  the  army  that  are 
always  and  everywhere  injurious. 

WOLVES    CAUSE    MILLIONS   OF  DOLLARS   OF 
LOSS  YEARLY 

It  was  predicted  that  the  extermina- 
tion of  the  buffalo  would  be  followed  by 
that  of  the  big  wolf,  so  intimately  asso- 
ciated were  the  two  in  the  days  when  the 
wolf  used  to  prey  on  the  young,  the 
aged,  and  the  crippled  buffalo ;  and  for  a 
time  after  our  largest  native  mammal 
succumbed  to  the  robe-hunter  it  seemed 
as  if  the  prediction  was  likely  to  be  ful- 
filled, so  scarce  did  wolves  become.  But 
the  old  buffalo  ranges  soon  filled  with 
cattle,  and  the  wolf  took  on  a  new  lease 
of  life,  and  in  some  localities  now 
threatens  to  become  as  numerous  as  in 
former  times.  The  value  of  the  cattle 
destroyed  annually  by  wolves  amounts 
to  millions  of  dollars,  and  this  despite 
the  payment  of  large  sums  as  bounty  for 
wolf  scalps.  After  investigation  the 
Biological  Survey  has  recommended 
measures  which  it  is  believed  will  pre- 
vent the  greater  part  of  the  damage.  The 
most  important  of  these  are  the  sys- 
tematic use  of  poison  and  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  wolf  pups  in  the  breeding 


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From  the  Biological  Survey 

THE  RING-TAILED  CIVET  CAT  OF  THE  SOUTHWESTERN  UNITED  STATES 

A  first-class  mouser 


dens.  Wolves  breed  early  in  the  year, 
and  when  snow  is  on  the  ground  may  be 
tracked  to  their  dens  with  absolute  cer- 
tainty. Even  when  the  ground  is  bare,  a 
skillful  tracker,  familiar  with  the  country 
and  with  the  habits  of  the  animal,  can 
usually  locate  the  dens.  By  destroying 
the  increase  and  by  the  judicious  use  of 
poison  to  insure  the  death  of  the  old  ones, 
several  millions  of  dollars  may  be  saved 
to  the  stockmen  annually  even  now,  while 
the  measures  recommended,  if  energet- 
ically and  persistently  followed  up,  are 
likely  to  result  in  the  practical  extermina- 
tion of  these  savage  pests. 


RATS    AXD    MICE    ARE    OUR    MOST    DREADED 

ENEMIES 

But  the  damage  by  wolves,  panthers, 
coyotes,  and  all  the  carnivores  put  to- 
gether does  not  begin  to  equal  the  de- 
struction wrought  by  the  army  of  small 
rodents,  individually  insignificant  but 
collectively  a  mighty  pest.  Rats  alone  do 
an  almost  incalculable  amount  of  harm 
in  the  United  States,  and  everywhere 
they  are  deservedly  dreaded,  all  the  more 
since  by  long  contact  and  constant  con- 
flict with  man  they  have  become  ex- 
tremely sagacious  and  wary,  and  thus  far 
have  been  able  to  defy  his  utmost  efforts 


THE  POLICEMEN  OF  THE  AIR 


93 


I 


From  the  Biological  Survey 


TEXAS   WILD   CAT 
An  active  foe  of  noxious  rodents 


to  exterminate  them,  or  even  to  seriously 
reduce  their  numbers,  and  as  if  the  meas- 
ure of  their  iniquity  were  not  filled  by  the 
wholesale  destruction  of  merchandise, 
household  goods  and  foodstuffs,  they  are 
now  known  to  serve  as  carriers  and  dis- 
seminators of  that  dread  disease,  the 
plague;  so  that  measures  to  exterminate 
them,  wherever  that  is  possible,  are 
doubly  important. 


When  is  added  to  the  total  damage 
done  by  rats  the  results  of  depredations 
by  meadow  and  house  mice,  by  prairie 
dogs,  rabbits,  gophers,  ground  squirrels, 
and  other  small  gnawing  animals,  the  re- 
sulting total,  could  it  be  ascertained, 
would  stagger  belief.  Unfortunately  ac- 
curate statistics  of  such  damages  are  for 
the  most  part  wanting,  but  a  single  item 
is  suggestive.  One  of  the  small  ground 


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Photo  by  Viola  McColm 


NOT  DEAD,  BUT  PLAYING  POSSUM 


squirrels  of  Washington  injures  the 
wheat  crop  in  a  single  county  of  that 
State  to  the  extent  of  half  a  million  dol- 
lars annually.  While  the  loss  to  this 
country  by  rodents  by  no  means  equals 
that  caused  by  insects,  the  total  reaches 
far  into  the  millions  and  is  a  serious  drain 
on  the  national  resources. 

To  devise  methods  of  combating  these 
pests,  of  reducing  their  numbers,  and,  if 
possible,  of  accomplishing  their  exter- 
mination is  one  of  the  important  problems 
dealt  with  by  the  Biological  Survey.  By 
the  use  of  traps,  of  poisoned  foods,  and 
of  gases  to  kill  the  animals  in  their  bur- 
rows, much  has  been  accomplished. 
Failure  to  secure  the  utmost  results 
aimed  at  by  these  methods  is  due  chiefly 
to  the  difficulty  of  securing  the  coopera- 
tion of  all  the  farmers  in  an  infested  re- 
gion. It  is  evident  that  if  a  number  of 
landholders  withhold  their  aid,  their 
farms  become  nurseries  from  which  to  re- 
populate  adjoining  districts.  Moreover, 
in  most  regions  there  are  sterile  and  un- 
productive areas  which  receive  no  atten- 


tion, and  these  again  are  harbors  of  ref- 
uge for  the  pests  which  later  emerge  to 
restock  farming  lands.  Hence  the  con- 
test appears  to  be  a  never-ending  one, 
and  is  a  constant  source  of  loss  and  an- 
noyance to  the  farmer. 

The  difficulties  of  warfare  against  ro- 
dents are  in  inverse  proportion  to  the  set- 
tlement of  the  country.  Where  farms  are 
large  and  there  is  much  waste  land,  the 
difficulties  are  very  great;  but  when 
farms  are  comparatively  small  and  there 
is  little  unoccupied  land,  cooperation  be- 
tween landholders  is  easier  to  secure  and 
results  are  more  encouraging.  In  parts  of 
Kansas,  for  instance,  where  formerly 
farming  population  was  scarce  and 
prairie  dogs  numerous  and  destructive, 
the  animals  have  been  practically  ex- 
terminated as  the  result  of  the  continued 
effort  of  numerous  ranchers  working  to- 
gether for  a  common  end  and  aided  by 
the  state. 

In  attempting  to  devise  more  effective 
means  of  abating  rodent  pests  the  atten- 
tion of  the  Survey  has  been  turned  to  a 


THE  POLICEMEN  OF  THE  AIR 


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THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


Photo  by  Bailey,  Biological  Survey 


GRAY  FOX — N£W    MEXICO 


study  of  the  use  of  epidemic  diseases — 
nature's  own  method  of  destroying  sur- 
plus population.  It  has  long  been  known 
that  at  irregular  intervals,  when  mam- 
mals, especially  rodents,  that  live  in 
crowded  communities  increase  till  they 
are  very  numerous,  they  are  suddenly 
smitten  with  an  epidemic  which  almost 
wipes  out  the  species  over  a  considerable 
area.  In  the  case  of  such  epidemics  a 
certain  number  of  individuals  either  are 
immune  to  the  disease  or  recover  from  it ; 
for  while  nature  is  prodigal  with  the  lives 
of  individuals  and  wastes  them  with  ap- 
parent recklessness,  she  cherishes  the 
species  and  is  chary  of  exposing  one  to 
the  risk  of  elimination.  After  a  few  years 
the  animal  that  has  paid  the  price  of  too 
great  prosperity  again  multiplies  beyond 
limits,  to  be  again  reduced. 

Efforts  are  now  being  made  to  obtain 
cultures  of  the  diseases  which  prevail 
among  the  more  destructive  of  our  ro- 
dents, so  that  they  may  be  employed  in 
other  regions  where  the  animals  are  pests. 
Since  the  cultures  mav  be  renewed  from 


time  to  time,  they  can  be  kept  indefinitely 
and  be  ready  for  use  as  required.  If  they 
prove  as  effective  as  when  employed  by 
nature,  the  problem  of  a  cheap  and  re- 
liable method  of  dealing  with  destructive 
rodents  will  have  been  solved. 

Fox  FARMING 

Time  was  when  it  might  almost  have 
been  said  that  America  furnished  furs  for 
the  world,  and  even  now  no  inconsider- 
able part  of  the  fur  harvest  comes  from 
America.  Year  by  year,  however,  the 
harvest  is  diminishing,  while  the  price  of 
furs  is  steadily  advancing,  till  the  finer 
and  rarer  kinds  are  within  the  reach  of 
only  the  very  wealthy.  Foxes  of  the  more 
valuable  kinds,  for  instance,  once  so  nu- 
merous in  this  country,  are  now  compara- 
tively scarce.  Their  fur  is  so  valuable 
and  so  much  sought  for  that,  instead  of 
trving  to  discover  means  to  compass  their 
destruction,  the  Survey  is  now  studying 
the  best  methods  of  fox  farming,  with  a 
view  to  making  the  breeding  of  the 


THE  POLICEMEN  OF  THE  AIR 


97 


TYPICAL  BREEDING  GROUNDS  OF  COYOTES  IN  WESTERN  WYOMING 


Photos  by  Bailey,  Biological   Survey 

COYOTE  PUPS  AT  MOUTH  OF  BREEDING  DEN  IN  WYOMING 
A  family  of  coyote  pups  was  found  in  the  hole  near  cross  on  extreme  right 


98  THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


I    IHHi 

Photo  by  Bailey,  Biological  Survey 

A  MUTE  WITNESS  TO  THE  DESTRUCTIVENESS  OF   MICHIGAN   WOLVES — BODY  OF  DEER 

LYING  ON  THE  SNOW 


animal  in  confinement  not  only  possible 
but  remunerative.  When  silver  fox 
skins  are  worth  from  $300  to  $600  a  skin 
it  does  not  need  a  Colonel  Sellers  to  see 
golden  possibilities  in  the  business. 

The  raising  of  mink  and  beaver,  and 
perhaps  otter,  for  their  fur  is  also 
thought  to  be  entirely  feasible.  The 
beaver  is  being  protected  in  Canada  and 
in  some  of  our  own  states.  It  should 
be  protected  in  all,  for  apparently  pro- 
tection is  all  that  is  required  to  enable  the 
animal  to  reestablish  itself  in  many  of  its 
old  haunts.  After  being  safeguarded  for 
a  term  of  years,  judicious  trapping  might 
then  be  allowed,  and  thus  this  remarkable 
and  valuable  fur-bearer  be  preserved  in- 
definitely, to  be  a  source  of  both  interest 
and  profit  to  future  generations.  Even 
the  despised  skunk,  which  is  easily  cared 
for  and  is  wonderfully  prolific,  can,  it  is 
believed,  be  raised  in  confinement  with 
profit. 

The  idea  of  raising  furs  for  the  market 
is  by  no  means  new.  Many  attempts 
have  been  made  to  breed  foxes  for  profit, 
especially  in  certain  islands  of  Alaska, 


where  the  conditions  would  seem  to  be 
ideal.  Some  of  the  ventures  appear  to 
have  proved  remunerative,  but  many  fail- 
ures have  resulted,  chiefly  as  the  result 
of  inexperience  and  lack  of  knowledge, 
especially  of  the  proper  feeding  and  care 
of  the  animals.  It  is  thought  that  the  dif- 
ficulties are  by  no  means  insuperable  and 
that  they  can  be  overcome  by  study  and 
carefully  conducted  experiments. 

Thus  the  ends  sought  by  the  Biological 
Survey  in  its  investigations  of  mammals 
differ  considerably  from  those  aimed  at 
in  its  study  of  birds.  The  more  carefully 
birds'  habits  are  studied  and  their  food 
investigated,  the  more  apparent  is  it  that 
man  cannot  do  without  them.  Such  is 
by  no  means  true  of  many  of  our  indig- 
enous mammals.  Some  are  valuable  be- 
cause they  destroy  noxious  insects  and 
noxious  mammals ;  others  because  they 
furnish  skins  for  use  and  comfort ;  but 
many  are  wholly  noxious,  or  so  nearly  so 
that  they  can  be  safely  classed  as  such, 
and  their  destruction  compassed  in  every 
possible  way,  though  always  with  the  en- 
tailment  of  as  little  suffering  as  possible. 


THE  POLICEMEN  OF  THE  AIR 


99 


APPLE  TREK  KILLED  BY  RABBITS 


Photos  from  the  Biological  Survey 


APPLE  TREE  KILLED  BY  FIELD  MICE 


ioo          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


Photo  from  the  Biological  Survey 
PRAIRIE  DOGS   AT    MOUTH   OF   BURROW 


y  AND  CROP  ZONES 

It  has  long  been  recognized  that  plants 
and  animals  are  not  distributed  fortui- 
tously over  the  earth, but  in  their  distribu- 
tion are  governed  by  well-defined  laws. 
Certain  species  and  groups  of  species  are 
restricted  to  certain  regions  because  of 
peculiarities  of  climate,  temperature,  and 
soil,  summed  up  under  the  word  environ- 
ment, essential  to  their  well  being. 

Cultivated  plants  are  wild  plants 
tamed — wild  plants  modified  to  some  ex- 
tent by  care  and  cultivation — but  in  their 
nature  and  all  essentials  akin  to  their  un- 
cultivated ancestors.  To  a  great  extent, 
then,  the  laws  of  distribution  that  apply 
to  wild  plants  and  animals  apply  equally 
well  to  cultivated  varieties.  The  ready 
application  of  these  facts  will  appear  from 
an  example.  If  on  a  certain  mountain 
side  a  particular  crop  is  found  to  thrive, 
and  the  observer  happens  to  know  the 
particular  plants,  birds,  and  mammals 
natural  to  the  locality,  when  he  visits  a 


different  region  where  the  same  plants 
and  animals  find  a  congenial  home  he 
may  be  sure  that  the  crop  in  question 
will  thrive  there  also. 

Such  being  the  case,  it  was  early  per- 
ceived that  a  study  of  the  distribution  of 
wild  plants  and  animals  and  the  mapping 
of  the  natural  areas  of  distribution  could 
be  made  to  serve  a  practical  use,  whereby 
the  farmer  would  be  saved  enormous  ex- 
pense in  experiments  to  ascertain  the  par- 
ticular crops  adapted  to  new  localities. 
Accordingly,  in  the  summer  of  1889  Mer- 
riam  selected  the  San  Francisco  mountain? 
region  of  Arizona  for  an  experimental 
survey,  and  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that 
the  results  of  the  work  there  revolution- 
ized prevailing  conceptions  of  the  princi- 
ples of  geographic  distribution. 

In  ascending  the  mountain  a  succession- 
of  climatic  belts  were  traversed,  similar 
to  the  ones  to  be  noted  in  traveling  from 
our  southern  boundaries  to  the  Arctic,, 
each  zone  or  belt  being  characterized  by 
a  distinct  set  of  animals  and  plants. 


THE  POLICEMEN  OF  THE  AIR 


101 


Among  other  results  it  was  demonstrated 
that  the  laws  governing  the  distribution 
of  mammals,  birds,  reptiles,  insects,  and 
plants  are  essentially  the  same.  Hence  a 
map  showing  the  boundaries  of  an  area 
inhabited  by  an  association  of  species  of 
one  group  serves  equally  well  for  the 
other  groups.  Comparison  of  the  facts  of 
distribution  as  noted  on  this  mountain 
with  corresponding  facts  over  the  country 
at  large  disclosed  three  important  truths : 
(a)  That  the  several  life  zones  of  the 
mountain  could  be  correlated  with  cor- 
responding zones  long  recognized  in  the 
eastern  United  States;  (b)  that  these 
same  zones  are  really  of  transcontinental 
extent,  though  never  before  recognized 
in  the  West;  and  (c)  that  the  faunas  and 
floras  of  North  America  as  a  whole,  and, 
for  that  matter,  of  the  Northern  Hemi- 
sphere north  of  the  tropical  region,  are 
properly  divisible  into  but  two  primary 
life  regions — a  northern,  or  Boreal,  and 


Photo  by  Viola  McColm 
YOUNG  COTTONTAIL,   RABBITS   IN    NEST 


a  southern,  or  Austral  (then  termed 
Sonoran),  both  stretching  across  the  con- 
tinent from  ocean  to  ocean. 

Subsequently  a  careful  study  of  the 
geographic  distribution  of  plants  and 
animals  was  undertaken,  to  include  the 
whole  of  the  United  States  and,  where 
necessary,  the  region  contiguous.* 

The  practical  use  of  zone  maps  is 
easily  understood.  If,  for  instance,  it  is 
ascertained  that  a  certain  crop  thrives  in 
one  part  of  a  particular  zone,  it  is  to  be 
expected  that  elsewhere  within  the  zone, 
where  similar  local  conditions  prevail, 
the  same  or  a  closely  allied  crop  will  do 
well.  As  each  zone  includes  thousands  of 
square  miles,  the  value  of  such  informa- 
tion is  obvious. 

The    final    step    toward    making    such 

*  The  first  announcement  of  the  laws  of  tem- 
perature control  of  the  geographical  distribu- 
tion of  terrestrial  animals  and  plants  was  made 
in  this  Magazine,  vol.  vi,  1894. 


102  THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


Photo  by  E.   R.  Warren 
MOUSE 
When  numerous  field  mice  do  enormous  damage  to  crops  (see  page  92) 


zone  maps  of  the  utmost  practical  use — 
and  a  very  important  one — is  to  accom- 
pany the  maps  with  a  list  of  the  fruits, 
.grains,  and  vegetables  best  suited  to  each 
zone.  Thus  the  necessary  experimenta- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  farmer  is  reduced 
to  a  minimum.  The  farmer  who  wishes 
to  find  land  where  a  certain  crop  may 
t>e  planted  with  success,  or  the  emigrant 
in  search  of  conditions  similar  to  those 
lie  is  familiar  with  at  home,  has  only  to 
refer  to  the  zone  maps  and  to  the  lists 
connected  therewith. 

A  small  scale  zone  map  of  the  United 
States  has  been  completed,  with  lists  of 
the  farm  products  most  likely  to  thrive  in 
the  several  belts.  While  for  general  pur- 
poses this  map  is  very  useful,  it  is  by  no 
means  detailed  enough  to  give  all  the  in- 
formation the  farmer  or  emigrant  in 
search  of  a  new  location  desires.  It  is 
the  present  purpose  to  survey  each  im- 
portant agricultural  state  with  sufficient 
detail  to  enable  life  and  crop  zone  maps 
to  be  published,  with  lists  of  the  crops 


specially  adapted  to  the  several  parts  of 
the  respective  states. 

Such  crop  and  zone  maps  are  useful  in 
still  another  field.  At  the  present  time 
the  whole  world  is  being  searched  by 
specialists  for  fruits  and  plants,  suited  to 
the  conditions  that  prevail  in  our  own 
country.  The  usefulness  of  such  maps 
as  a  guide  to  the  most  favorable  localities 
in  which  to  test  the  value  of  these  foreign 
importations  can  hardly  be  overestimated. 

Noxious  insects  also  in  their  dispersal 
over  the  country  follow  the  same  faunal 
belts,  as  do  also  many  of  the  dis- 
eases of  domestic  stock  and  even  of  man. 
Yellow  fever,  the  germs  of  which  are 
now  known  to  be  distributed  by  a  mos- 
quito, has  been  shown  to  be  limited  to 
a  transcontinental  belt  the  boundaries  of 
which  were  laid  down  by  the  Survey 
nearly  twenty  years  ago. 

Curiously  enough  the  regions  formerly 
occupied  by  particular  tribes  of  Indians 
correspond  in  a  general  way  with  these 
same  life  zones,  as  was  pointed  out  by 


THE  POLICEMEN  OF  THE  AIR 


103 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


Photo  by  Osgood,  Biological  Survey 
SHELTER-HOUSE  ON  FOX  FARM  IN  MAINE 


Merriam.  The  Indian  was  largely  de- 
pendent for  his  livelihood  upon  the 
natural  fruits  of  the  earth  and  upon 
game,  in  the  same  way,  though  not  to  the 
same  extent,  as  were  wild  animals.  Thus 
the  distribution  of  acorns,  camas,  pine 
seeds,  wild  oats,  and  the  thousand  other 
wild  crops,  as  well  as  that  of  the  birds 
and  animals  which  furnished  them  food 
and  raiment,  to  a  great  extent  determined 
the  favorite  haunts  of  the  aborigines  of 
this  continent. 

CAME  PROTECTION  AND  KINDRED  SUBJECTS 

What  a  glorious  heritage  of  game,  both 
bird  and  beast,  was  bequeathed  by  the 
Indians  to  our  forebears,  and  with  what 
prodigality  has  it  been  wasted  by  them 
and  by  ourselves !  Neither  motives  of 
humanity  nor  far-sighted  prescience  de- 
terred the  Indian  from  wanton  slaughter 
of  game.  He  killed  animals  and  birds, 
however,  not  for  sport,  but  for  food, 
shelter,  and  raiment,  and  the  very  abun- 


dance of  game  and  his  imperfect  weapons 
made  game  laws  restrictive  measures  in 
his  time  as  unnecessary  as  they  were  un- 
dreamed of. 

Very  different  are  present-day  condi- 
tions. Of  the  almost  infinite  number  of 
game  birds  and  animals  that  once  filled 
our  mountains  and  valleys  only  a  small 
remnant  is  left.  The  buffalo,  that  ranged 
from  the  Atlantic  to  beyond  the  Rocky 
Mountains  and  blackened  the  plains  with 
its  countless  numbers,  is  practically  ex- 
tinct in  its  wild  state ;  the  antelope,  bands 
of  which  everywhere  dotted  the  plains,  is 
rapidly  approaching  the  same  fate ;  moose 
and  caribou,  though  still  occurring  over 
much  of  their  former  range,  are  being 
greatly  reduced  in  numbers ;  while  elk, 
deer,  and  mountain  sheep  are  quite  un- 
known over  much  of  the  territory  they 
formerly  inhabited.  Our  game  birds  are 
facing  the  same  fate.  The  present  gen- 
eration knows  not  the  wild  pigeon,  flocks 
of  which  used  to  darken  the  sun  as  they 
swept  across  country.  The  various 


THE  POLICEMEN  OF  THE  AIR 


Photo  by  Bailey,  Biological  Survey 
ASPEN  BEING  FEUDED  BY  BEAVER — NOTE  SIZE  Otf  CHIPS 


Photo  by  Bailey,  Biological  Survey 

BEAVER  DAM  FROM  BELOW NOTE  STORAGE  POND  ABOVE  DAM 

The  beaver  is  a  natural  ally  of  the  reclamation  engineer 


io6          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


Photo  from  Mrs  Charles   Shaffer 
HUDSON   BAY   SABLE 
One  of  the  most  valuable  American  fur  bearers 


species  of  grouse  and  quail  have  been 
decimated  in  many  regions  till  only  a 
beggarly  remnant  remains,  and  even 
ducks  and  geese,  that  with  the  changing 
seasons  once  thronged  our  tidal  waters 
and  waterways,  have  been  so  mercilessly 
slaughtered  that  the  future  prospects  of 
more  than  one  species  looks  dark.  All 
of  our  waders  have  been  reduced  in  num- 
bers and  many  are  almost  unknown 
where  formerly  they  used  to  cover  the 
sand  and  mud  flats.  Such  facts  suf- 
ficiently empasize  the  need  of  game  pro- 
tection, and  the  study  of  ways  and  means 
of  preserving  such  of  our  game  birds  and 
animals  as  still  survive  is  regarded  as  one 


of  the  pressing  duties  of  the  Biological 
Survey. 

We  Americans  did  not  at  first  welcome 
the  idea  of  close  seasons,  license  systems, 
game  refuges,  game  wardens,  and  the 
other  measures  necessary  for  the  protec- 
tion of  wild  life.  To  our  forefathers  of 
not  long  ago  the  privilege  of  killing  game 
when  needed  was  an  absolute  necessity, 
and  we  have  been  so  long  accustomed  to 
the  idea  that  game  is  public  property,  to 
be  appropriated  by  the  first  comer,  that 
we  do  not  take  kindly  to  restrictions  of 
any  sort.  Nevertheless  both  the  theory 
and  practice  of  game  and  bird  protection 
are  now  firmly  rooted  in  this  country,, 


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By  courtesy  of  the  Pacific  Monthly 
ORANGE  GROVES  OF  SOUTHERN  CALIFORNIA 

In  climbing  the  mountains  in  the  background  one  traverses  in  succession  all  the  life  zones  from 
the  orange  belt  (Lower  Sonoran  zone)  to  the  frigid  treeless  summit  (Alpine  zone) 


simply  because  of  the  self-evident  fact 
that  without  at  least  a  measure  of  pro- 
tection there  will  soon  be  no  game  left. 
No  duty  can  be  plainer  than  to  so  care 
for  our  game  animals  that  the  species 
may  be  perpetuated  for  the  pleasure  and 
use  of  future  generations.  We  cannot 
indeed  pass  on  in  full  measure  the  heir- 
loom we  received,  but  many  of  our  finest 
game  birds  and  animals  still  survive,  to 
insure  a  future  supply,  provided  we  re- 
frain from  wanton  slaughter  and  protect 
both  wisely  and  well.  The  theory  that 
wild  game  is  not  and  cannot  be  made  the 
property  of  the  individual,  but  that  it  be- 
longs to  the  state,  which  has  the  power 
to  regulate  its  use  and  preservation,  is 
now  recognized  almost  everywhere,  and 
the  recognition  of  this  principle  has 
greatly  aided  the  cause  of  game  protec- 
tion. 


As  the  supply  of  native  game  birds  di- 
minishes, there  appears  to  be  a  growing 
tendency  among  sportsmen  to  import 
birds  from  foreign  countries  for  restock- 
ing covers,  and  the  Survey  is  constantly 
in  receipt  of  requests  for  information  on 
this  subject.  European  partridges,  caper- 
cailzie, black  game,  willow  and  hazel 
grouse,  and  several  kinds  of  pheasants 
have  already  been  experimented  with.  It 
is  yet  too  soon  to  decide  as  to  the  ultimate 
outcome  of  most  of  these  efforts,  but  in 
the  West,  especially  in  Oregon  and 
Washington,  the  introduction  of  pheas- 
ants has  been  successful,  and  in  certain 
localities  two  species  of  these  superb 
game  birds  are  very  numerous.  In  parts 
of  the  Atlantic  States  also  they  have  been 
successfully  acclimatized. 

Should  it  prove,  as  now  appears  prob- 
able, that  along  with  pheasants  and  other 


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THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


foreign  game  birds  diseases  have  been 
introduced  which  threaten  the  safety  of 
our  own  native  game  birds,  sportsmen 
may  conclude  that  by  the  importation  of 
foreign  species  they  have  lost  more  than 
they  have  gained. 

As  most  birds,  including  ducks  and 
geese,  are  migratory  and  do  not  breed  in 
the  states  through  which  they  pass  in 
spring  and  fall,  many  now  advocate 
measures  placing  all  migratory  birds 
under  federal  control.  The  present  di- 
versity of  state  laws  and  the  wide  differ- 
ences in  the  dates  of  their  open  and  close 
seasons  are  the  chief  arguments  for  dele- 
gating the  care  of  migrants  to  central  au- 
thority. That  the  effect  of  such  a  meas- 
ure would  be  to  improve  existing  condi- 
tions and  extend  the  lease  of  life  to  many 
species  of  ducks  and  shore  birds  now  fast 
approaching  extinction  can  hardly  be 
doubted. 

BIG-GAME  REFUGES 

The  use  of  government  reservations  for 
the  preservation  of  wild  animals  in  dan- 
ger of  extinction  is  a  practical  form  of 
protection  which  cannot  be  too  highly 
commended.  The  experiment  on  a  large 
scale  was  first  tried  in  Yellowstone  Park, 
and  the  results  there  have  been  most 
encouraging.  Despite  some  poaching, 
elk,  antelope,  and  mountain  sheep  have 
steadily  increased  in  numbers,  while  buf- 
falo also  have  thriven  wonderfully. 

The  high  price  paid  for  elks'  teeth  is 
a  constant  temptation  to  lawless  hunters 
to  kill  these  superb  animals.  It  is  to  be 
hoped  that  the  organization  chiefly  re- 
sponsible for  this  demand  will  by  official 
action  repudiate  elks'  teeth  as  a  necessary 
emblem  of  the  order,  and  thus  lend 
material  assistance  in  the  effort  to  pre- 
serve this,  the  noblest  of  our  game 
animals. 

It  is  a  pleasure  to  note  that  the  co- 
operation of  private  parties  with  the  gov- 
ernment authorities  in  efforts  to  per- 
petuate our  game  animals  are  not  want- 
ing. An  instance  in  point  is  Miller  and 
Lux's  generous  offer  to  the  government 
of  their  herd  of  elk  on  the  Button  Wil- 


low Ranch,  California.  In  1905,  under 
the  direction  of  the  Biological  Survey, 
some  20  of  these  animals  were  success- 
fully transferred  to  the  Sequoia  Na- 
tional Park,  in  Tulare  County,  where  they 
promise  to  form  the  nucleus  of  a  large 
herd  of  this  fine  species. 

The  New  York  Zoological  Society  is 
also  actively  interested  in  the  preserva- 
tion of  our  big  game.  Through  its  gen- 
erous cooperation,  the  Wichita  Game 
Preserve  in  Oklahoma  has  become  the 
permanent  home  of  a  herd  of  buffalo. 
The  animals  are  confined  to  a  suitable 
area  by  means  of  a  strong  fence,  and,  as 
the  preserve  is  in  the  midst  of  their 
former  range,  the  success  of  the  experi- 
ment would  seem  to  be  assured.  Under 
what  appear  to  be  ideal  conditions,  the 
herd  is  likely  to  increase  notably,  so  that 
in  time  it  will  be  possible,  if  desired,  to 
stock  other  reserves  from  the  surplus. 

13  BIRD  RESERVATIONS 

The  theory  of  the  bird  reservation  is 
nearly  akin  to  that  of  the  game  refuge. 
Formerly  our  coast  teemed  with  bird  life, 
which  consisted  not  only  of  migrants 
from  the  far  north,  but  of  summer  resi- 
dents, which  found  the  rocky  and  sandy 
islets  of  our  shores  a  very  birds'  paradise. 
The  rage  for  hat  birds  changed  all  this 
and  converted  most  of  the  former  bird 
resorts  into  solitudes,  so  far  as  bird  life 
is  concerned.  By  setting  aside  here  and 
there  an  island  of  no  particular  use  for 
other  purposes,  the  government  has 
established  nurseries  and  winter  resorts 
where  sea  birds  undisturbed  may  rear 
their  young  and  find  shelter.  The  plan 
has  the  energetic  cooperation  of  the  Na- 
tional Audubon  Society,  which  has  estab- 
lished island  reserves  of  its  own,  and 
whose  good  work  in  this  and  other  fields 
cannot  be  too  highly  extolled.  The  re- 
sults attained  are  exceedingly  satis- 
factory, and  thousands  of  gulls,  terns, 
pelicans,  and  other  sea  birds  are  reared 
each  vear  in  these  bird  resorts.  Pelican 
Island  is  likely  to  becomo  one  of  the 
sights  of  Florida,  and  already  many 
tourists  have  sought  permission  to  visit 


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THE  POLICEMEN  OF  THE  AIR 


117 


it  to  view  the  ungainly  but  interesting 
birds  attending  to  their  domestic  duties. 
As  a  final  result  of  the  establishment 
of  bird  refuges,  there  is  every  reason  to 
believe  not  only  that  these  island  bird 
colonies  will  be  maintained  intact,  but 
that  in  time  the  birds  will  so  multiply  as 
to  restock  other  islands  not  under  the 
control  of  specially  appointed  wardens. 
Thus  far  13  reservations  have  been  set 
apart  by  the  Government :  Breton  Island, 
Louisiana;  Pelican  Island,  Passage  Key, 
and  Indian  Key,  Florida;  Stump  Lake, 
North  Dakota;  Huron  Islands,  off  the 
south  shore  of  Lake  Superior,  Michigan ; 
Siskiwit  Islands,  south  of  Isle  Royale, 
Lake  Superior;  and  a  series  of  islands 
off  the  coast  of  Oregon  and  Washington. 

PROTECTION  01?  GAME  IN  ALASKA 

The  big  game  of  the  world  is  fast  be- 
ing killed  off.  Nowadays  no  region  is 
too  wild  or  remote  to  attract  the  sports- 
man and  the  trophy  hunter.  Those  who 
read  the  accounts  of  the  African  ex- 
plorers of  scarcely  more  than  a  genera- 
tion ago  never  dreamed  that  in  a  short 
time  the  vast  herds  of  wild  game  over 
the  greater  part  of  that  continent  would 
be  a  thing  of  the  past.  Alaska  has  now 
become  the  Mecca  toward  which  the 
eyes  of  sportsmen  are  longingly  turned, 
and  were  all  restrictions  on  the  export  of 
trophies  from  that  territory  removed,  a 
very  short  period  would  suffice  to  see  the 
end  of  several  notable  game  animals. 
The  Kenai  Peninsula  contains  the  largest 
of  the  deer  tribe  in  the  world,  the  big 
Kenai  moose,  and  horns  of  one  of  these 
animals,  which  sometimes  spread  74 
inches  or  more,  command  fabulous  prices. 
Other  Alaska  game  animals  are  greatly 
prized  by  sportsmen  for  trophies. 

In  a  territory  so  remote  from  supplies 
as  Alaska,  game  possesses  more  than 
ordinary  value  to  its  inhabitants,  and  the 
primary  purpose  of  the  Alaska  game  law 
was  to  preserve  the  game  for  the  use  of 
the  people,  both  natives  and  white.  To 
provide  for  emergencies,  a  special  clause 
in  the  present  law  allows  Indians,  Eski- 
mos, miners,  and  explorers,  when  in  need 


of  food  or  clothing,  to  kill  game  for  their 
immediate  use.  Prior  to  the  passage  of 
the  law,  so  many  deer  were  killed  for 
their  hides  as  to  threaten  the  extinction  of 
these  animals  within  accessible  territory. 

The  law  has  been  thought  by  many  too 
drastic,  and  has  caused  much  dissatis- 
faction. 

A  bill  was  introduced  in  the  59th 
Congress,  and  passed  the  House,  which 
materially  modifies  the  present  law  and  is 
very  liberal  with  regard  to  the  shipment 
of  trophies.  It  provides,  among  other 
things,  for  the  issuing  of  licenses  to  hunt 
and  to  export  a  limited  number  of  tro- 
phies and  for  the  employment  of  game 
wardens  and  guides.  Should  this  bill  be- 
come a  law,  many  of  the  present  causes 
of  complaint  on  the  part  of  sportsmen 
and  residents  of  Alaska  will  be  removed. 


THE: 


ACT 


The  so-called  Lacey  act,  approved  May 
25,  1900,  marked  a  long  and  important 
step  forward  in  the  cause  of  bird  and 
game  protection.  Prior  to  its  passage  the 
several  states  attempted  in  vain  to  pro- 
hibit the  shipment  of  game  beyond  their 
boundaries.  Game  was  forwarded  to 
other  states  and  sold  in  distant  markets, 
without  respect  to  season,  under  the  plea 
that  by  such  shipment  it  had  become  an 
article  of  interstate  commerce  and  hence 
was  beyond  the  jurisdiction  of  the  state 
where  offered  for  sale.  All  this  was 
changed  by  the  Lacey  act,  which  struck 
at  the  root  of  the  evil  by  prohibiting  the 
shipment  from  any  state  of  birds  killed 
in  violation  of  local  laws,  and  placed  im- 
ported game  on  the  same  footing  as  birds 
or  animals  produced  within  the  state 
where  the  game  was  sold. 

This  act  confers  upon  the  Department 
of  Agriculture  important  powers  also  in 
relation  to  the  importation  of  foreign 
birds  and  animals,  which  prior  to  its  pas- 
sage was  without  check.  It  specifically 
prohibits  the  introduction  of  certain 
species,  such  as  the  English  sparrow, 
starling,  flying-fox,  mongoose,  and  such 
others  as  mav  be  declared  injurious  to 
agriculture  ;  for  with  the  growth  of  our 


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THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


commerce  the  danger  of  the  introduction 
of  noxious  birds,  mammals,  and  insects  is 
ever  present.  To  prevent  the  introduc- 
tion of  birds  and  mammals  likely  to  be- 
come pests  is  one  of  the  special  duties  of 
the  Biological  Survey. 

-GUARDING  AGAINST  DANGEROUS  IMPORTA- 
TIONS 

The  English  sparrow  serves  as  an 
ever-ready  example  of  the  disastrous 
consequences  of  the  unwise  introduction 
of  a  species  into  a  new  home.  Under 
the  present  law  and  system  of  inspection, 
this  pest  could  never  have  obtained  a 
foothold  in  America,  since  so  well  known 
were  the  bird's  habits  in  its  native  land 
that  its  disastrous  career  on  this  con- 
tinent would  have  been  foreseen  and  its 
entry  prohibited. 

Under  the  mistaken  idea  that  the 
mongoose  would  prove  beneficial  by  de- 
voting itself  to  the  destruction  of  small 
rodents,  and  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  the 
animal  is  omnivorous  and  one  of  the  most 
destructive  creatures  in  existence,  more 
than  one  attempt  has  been  made  to  im- 
port it  into  the  United  States,  where  its 
successful  introduction  would  prove  noth- 
ing less  than  a  national  calamity. 

Attempts  to  bring  in  numerous  noxious 
birds  and  beasts  have  been  frustrated 
only  by  the  vigilance  of  the  inspectors. 
It  is,  however,  necessary  to  guard  not 
only  against  intentional  importation  of 
noxious  species  from  mistaken  philan- 
thropic motives,  but  unintentional  ones; 
and  when  it  is  understood  that  under  the 
433  permits  issued  last  year  for  the  entry 
of  foreign  birds  and  animals  were  in- 
cluded 274,914  canaries,  47,383  miscel- 
laneous birds,  and  654  mammals,  it  will 
be  seen  that  mistakes  of  identity  by  im- 
porters might  easily  be  made,  and  that 
under  the  guise  of  innocent  species  nox- 
ious ones  might  find  entrance.  Every 
shipment  of  birds  or  beasts,  therefore,  is 
carefully  scanned  by  expert  agents,  who 
seize  upon  noxious  species  and  prevent 
their  entry  into  the  country  by  compelling 


their  destruction  or  their  return  to  the 
port  of  shipment.  The  Lacey  act  is  not 
intended  to  restrict  legitimate  trade  or 
work  undue  hardship  on  importers.  In 
the  great  majority  of  cases  it  can  be 
enforced  so  as  to  cause  only  slight  delay 
and  yet  prevent  the  entry  of  species  which 
may  become  pests. 

As  will  appear  from  this  short  sketch, 
the  work  of  the  Biological  Survey  is  em- 
inently practical  in  its  nature  and  intent. 
Beginning  with  investigations  of  the  food 
habits  of  a  few  of  our  most  important 
birds,  the  scope  of  its  work  has  widened 
until  it  involves  the  study  of  all  our  birds 
and  mammals  in  their  manifold  relations 
to  man.  The  essential  objects  of  this 
branch  of  the  work  are  to  show  from  a 
basis  of  ascertained  fact  the  particular 
species  that  are  beneficial  and  those  that 
are  injurious,  and  to  indicate  the  best 
methods  of  preserving  the  one  class  and 
of  destroying  the  other.  Incidental  to 
its  main  object,  it  endeavors  to  collect 
and  to  supply  to  those  interested  all 
available  information  relative  to  the  dis- 
tribution and  abundance  of  our  game  and 
of  our  birds  and  mammals.  Its  list  of 
publications  is  already  a  long  one.  Many 
of  its  reports  are  purely  practical,  in- 
tended for  the  information  and  guidance 
of  the  farmer;  others  are  more  strictly 
scientific  and  are  designed  to  serve  ed- 
ucational purposes. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  United 
States,  one  of  the  youngest  of  the  world's 
powers,  is  a  pioneer  in  the  kind  of  eco- 
nomic work  outlined  in  the  present  paper. 
European  countries,  however,  are  now 
recognizing  the  immense  importance  to 
agriculture  of  such  investigations  and 
their  absolute  necessity  as  the  basis  for 
national  and  international  laws. 

As  the  world's  population  increases 
and  as  vast  regions  of  land  now  wild 
and  uncultivated  are  brought  under  the 
plow,  so  must  investigations  of  the  kind 
entrusted  by  Congress  to  the  Biological 
Survey  ever  assume  more  and  more  im- 
portance. 


A   FEW   THOUGHTS   CONCERNING 
EUGENICS 

BY  ALEXANDER  GRAHAM  BELL 


The  following  paper  is  an  address  by  Dr  Bell  to  the  American  Breeders'  As- 
sociation at  the  recent  convention  of  the  Association  in  Washington,  January,. 
1908.  This  Association  was  formed  several  years  ago  to  encourage  those  per- 
sons of  the  United  States  working  to  improve  our  plants  and  animals.  The 
President  of  the  Association  is  Hon.  James  Wilson,  Secretary  of  Agriculture, 
and  the  Secretary,  Hon.  Willett  M.  Hayes,  Assistant  Secretary  of  Agriculture. 
Every  person  who  is  interested  in  the  scientific  work  of  the  Government  and  of 
individuals  of  the  United  States  to  create  stronger  and  more  productive  varieties 
of  animals  or  plants  is  eligible  for  membership.  The  Association  is  doing  splen- 
did work  in  collecting  and  distributing  the  results  of  the  many  workers  along 
these  lines.  One  branch  of  the  Association  includes  efforts  to  improve  the  human 
race,  and  it  was  as  a  member  of  the  Committee  on  this  subject  of  eugenics  that 
Dr  Bell  presented  this  address. 


THE  subject  you  have  entrusted 
to  your  Committee  on  Eugenics 
is  of  transcendent  importance  to 
mankind.  It  is  no  less  a  question  than  the 
consideration  of  whether  it  is  possible  to 
apply  the  principles  of  selective  breeding 
to  man  for  the  benefit  of  the  human  race. 
If  it  is  true  that  "the  proper  study  of  man 
is  man,"  no  higher  or  nobler  subject  of 
research  can  be  found. 

I  esteem  it  an  honor  to  have  been  se- 
lected by  you  to  serve  on  the  committee 
having  this  matter  in  charge,  and  to  be 
associated  with  the  eminent  men  who 
compose  the  committee,  under  the  lead- 
ership of  Dr  David  Starr  Jordan,  Presi- 
dent of  Leland  Stanford  University. 
President  Jordan,  as  chairman,  has 
already  presented  a  preliminary  report 
for  the  committee,  which  has  met  with 
the  ready  acceptance  of  all  the  members. 

As  the  Committee  on  Eugenics  has  not 
yet  held  a  meeting  for  conference  and 
discussion,  it  will  of  course  be  understood 
that  anything  I  may  say  upon  the  sub- 
ject today  expresses  merely  my  own  in- 
dividual views,  for  which  the  committee 
is  in  no  way  responsible. 

The  improvement  of  the  human  race 
depends  largely  upon  two  great  factors, 
heredity  and  environment;  and  we  deal 
chiefly  with  the  question  of  heredity.  It 
is  a  breeder's  problem  with  which  we  are 
mainly  concerned  and  not  a  question  of 
education  or  environment. 


We  have  learned  to  apply  the  laws  of 
heredity  so  as  to  modify  and  improve  our 
breeds  of  domestic  animals.  Can  the 
knowledge  and  experience  so  gained  be 
made  available  to  man,  so  as  to  enable 
him  to  improve  the  species  to  which  he 
himself  belongs  ? 

Can  we  formulate  practical  plans  that 
might  lead  to  the  breeding  of  better  men 
and  better  women?  This  is  the  great 
question  we  are  called  upon  to  consider. 

The  problem  is  one  of  great  difficulty 
and  perplexity,  for  its  solution  depends 
upon  the  possibility  of  controlling  the 
production  of  offspring  from  human 
beings.  By  no  process  of  compulsion  can 
this  be  done.  The  controlling  power,  if 
it  is  possible  to  evoke  it  in  the  interests 
of  the  race,  resides  exclusively  with  the 
individuals  most  immediately  concerned. 
This  fact,  I  think,  should  be  recognized 
as  fundamental,  so  that  our  processes 
should  be  persuasive  rather  than  manda- 
tory. 

The  great  hope  lies  in  the  fact  that 
human  beings  possess  intelligence,  and 
a  desire  that  their  offspring  may  be  fully 
up  to  the  average  of  the  race  in  every 
particular,  if  not  superior.  It  is  cer- 
tainly the  case  that  no  man  desires  that 
his  children  shall  be  weak,  sickly,  defec- 
tive, or  in  any  way  inferior  in  physical 
or  mental  endowments.  A  condition  of 
sentiment  therefore  prevails  that  is  emi- 
nently favorable  to  voluntary  compliance 


120 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


with  plans  that  appeal  to  reason  and 
sound  judgment.  The  mere  dissemina- 
tion of  information  concerning  those  con- 
ditions that  result  in  superior  or  inferior 
offspring  would  of  itself  tend  to  promote 
the  production  of  the  superior  and  to 
lessen  the  production  of  the  inferior  ele- 
ments. 

Knowledge  is  what  is  wanted,  and  the 
dissemination  of  that  knowledge  among 
the  people.  There  is  a  wide  field  here 
for  your  Committee  on  Eugenics,  or  for 
some  great  national  organization  or  so- 
ciety devoted  to  the  increase  and  dif- 
fusion of  knowledge  concerning  eugenics. 

CONSANGUINEOUS    MARRIAGES. 

If  it  should  be  clearly  shown  that 
certain  classes  of  marriages  are  hurtful 
to  the  offspring  and  others  beneficial, 
the  mere  dissemination  of  that  knowledge 
would  of  itself  tend  to  promote  desirable 
and  prevent  undesirable  unions  of  the 
sexes.  Would  any  reasonable  person,  for 
instance,  think  of  marrying  his  first 
cousin,  any  more  than  he  would  dream  of 
marrying  his  sister,  if  he  really  believed 
that  any  harm  would  result  to  the  off- 
spring; and  if  you  could  find  one  such 
person  could  you  find  two — for  it  takes 
two  to  make  a  marriage. 

The  fact  that  such  marriages  are  con- 
tracted in  spite  of  legislative  prohibition 
in  several  of  our  states,  and  in  spite  of  a 
considerable  public  feeling  against  such 
unions,  simply  shows  that  there  is  a 
difference  of  opinion  upon  the  subject. 

The  only  justification  for  legislative 
interference  lies  in  the  belief  that  con- 
sanguineous marriages  are  harmful  to  the 
offspring.  The  only  justification  for  mar- 
riage under  such  circumstances  lies  in 
the  belief  that  they  are  not  harmful — at 
least,  in  particular  cases.  A  question  of 
fact  is  here  involved,  not  mere  opinion. 
Are  they  harmful  or  are  they  not  Or  if 
they  are  harmful  in  some  cases  and  not  in 
others,  what  are  the  conditions  under 
which  they  are  harmful  ?  These  are  ques- 
tions that  might  well  be  considered  by 
your  Committee  on  Eugenics. 

The  experience  of  breeders  of  animals 
would  be  especially  helpful  in  this  con- 


nection. It  is  extremely  difficult  to  collect 
statistics  upon  a  large  scale  regarding 
consanguineous  unions  among  human 
beings,  but  a  breeders'  association  could 
surely  supply  statistics  concerning  ani- 
mals. We  all  know  that  the  laws  of 
heredity  that  apply  to  animals  also  apply 
to  man;  and  statistics  of  in-breeding 
would  be  of  great  value  if  they  could  be 
so  arranged  as  to  throw  light  upon  the 
effect  of  consanguineous  unions  in  hu- 
man beings.  I  understand  that  while 
breeders  recognize  an  element  of  danger 
in  consanguineous  unions,  and  especially 
in  continuous  in-breeding  for  a  number  of 
successive  generations,  they  constantly 
resort  to  in-breeding  to  perpetuate  and 
intensify  desirable  characteristics.  In 
fact,  it  is  usually  through  in-breeding  that 
thoroughbreds  are  produced;  and  it  is 
chiefly  through  the  prepotency  of  thor- 
oughbreds that  races  of  domestic  animals 
are  improved.  If  there  are  any  condi- 
tions under  which  consanguineous  unions 
would  be  of  benefit  to  man  they  should 
be  made  known,  so  as  to  enable  us  to  un- 
derstand, certainly,  what  conditions  are 
beneficial  and  what  harmful,  to  the 
end  that  public  opinion  may  be  rightly 
guided  in  its  treatment  of  this  important 
subject. 

We  have  statistics  which  indicate  very 
clearly  that  consanguineous  unions  should 
not  be  contracted  by  defective  persons, 
and  the  results  obtained  by  Dr  E.  A.  Fay* 
are  specially  significant  in  this  con- 
nection. He  shows  that  there  is  con- 
siderable liability  to  the  production  of 
deaf  offspring  where  a  deaf-mute  marries 
a  blood  relative,  even  in  cases  where  the 
original  deafness  was  not  congenital. 

The  statistics  of  the  twelfth  census f  of 
the  United  States  show  that  at  least  4.5 
per  cent  of  the  deaf  of  the  country,  and  4.5 
per  cent  of  the  blind  are  the  offspring  of 
consanguineous  marriages,  but  we  do  not 
know  conclusively  whether  consanguinity 
in  the  parents  produces  the  defective  con- 

*  Marriages  of  the  Deaf  in  America,  by  Ed- 
ward Allen  Fay.  Published  by  the  Volta 
Bureau,  Washington,  D.  C.,  1898. 

f  Special  Report  on  the  Blind  and  the  Deaf 
in  1900.  U.  S.  Census  publication,  Washington, 
D.  C,  1906. 


A  FEW  THOUGHTS  CONCERNING  EUGENICS      121 


dition,  or  whether  it  simply  intensifies  a 
preexisting  tendency  in  the  family.*  The 
largest  percentages  of  children  of 
cousin  marriages  are  found  among  the 
deaf  who  have  deaf  relatives  (8.8  per 
cent),  and  among  the  blind  who  have 
blind  relatives  (9.5  per  cent)  ;  whereas  in 
sporadic  cases  the  percentage  falls  to 
little  more  than  3  per  cent — that  is,  about 
3  per  cent  of  the  deaf  who  have  no  deaf 
relatives  (3.3  per  cent)  and  about  3  per 
cent  of  the  blind  who  have  no  blind  rela- 
tives (3.2  per  cent)  are  the  offspring  of 
cousin  marriages.  This  may  mean  a 
great  deal  or  it  may  mean  nothing  at  all. 
Should  we  find,  for  example,  that  3 
per  cent  of  the  population  of  the  United 
States  are  the  offspring  of  consangui- 
neous unions  there  would  be  no  proof  that 
the  consanguinity  of  the  parents  had 
anything  to  do  with  the  production  of  the 
defect  in  these  cases.  Statistics  showing 
the  proportion  of  the  whole  population 
who  are  the  offspring  of  consanguineous 
marriages  are  much  needed,  and  the 
whole  subject,  I  think,  might  very  prop- 
erly be  investigated  through  the  medium 
of  the  United  States  Census  Bureau. 

THE    IMPORTANCE    OF    THE     INFERIOR     IS 
OVERRATED 

In  any  large  aggregate  of  individuals 


the  vast  majority  will  be  of  the  average 
type  of  the  race.  Some  few  will  be 
markedly  superior  and  some  few  inferior. 

An  increase  in  the  superior  element 
seems  to  be  a  more  important  factor  in 
producing  improvement  than  a  decrease 
in  the  inferior  element.  Even  were  we  to 
go  to  the  extreme  length  of  cutting  off 
entirely  the  reproduction  of  the  inferior, 
this  would  not  lead  to  an  increase  in  the 
numbers  of  the  superior,  but  on  the  con- 
trary to  a  decrease;  for  some  of  the  su- 
perior are  the  offspring  of  inferior  par- 
ents, just  as  some  of  the  inferior  are  the 
offspring  of  superior. 

In  the  case  of  superior,  average,  and 
inferior  persons  all  three  classes  would 
be  reproduced  in  the  offspring,  but 
in  different  proportions.  There  would 
be  a  larger  proportion  of  superior 
children  among  the  offspring  of  the 
superior  than  of  the  average  or  in- 
ferior, and  a  larger  proportion  of  inferior 
among  the  offspring  of  the  inferior.  The 
cutting  off  of  the  inferior  would  simply 
prevent  deterioration  by  lessening  the 
production  of  inferior  offspring.  It 
would  not  operate  to  cause  an  improve- 
ment by  an  increase  of  the  superior  ele- 
ment. 

I  am  much  struck  by  the  thought  that 
neither  the  quantity  nor  quality  of  the 


The  Deaf  of  the  United  States  in  1900  from  Census  Table  XLVII,  omitting  "not  stated"  cases 
relating  to  consanguinity  of  parents  and  Deaf  Relatives. 


The  deaf. 

Numbers. 

Percentage. 

Total. 

Parents 
cousins. 

Parents 
not 
cousins. 

Parents 
cousins. 

Parents 
not 
cousins. 

Total 

77,550 

24,723 
52,827 

3,9H 

2,171 
1,740 

73,639 

22,552 
51,087 

5-o 

8.8 
3-3 

95-o 

91.2 
96.7 

Deaf  relatives  (a  or  b)  : 
Deaf  relatives                               

No  deaf  relatives  

The  Blind  of  the  United  States  in  1900  from  Census   Table  XVIII,  omitting  "not  stated"  cases 
relating  to  consanguinity  of  parents  and  Blind  Relatives. 


Numbers. 

Perce 

titage. 

The  blind. 

Total. 

Parents 
cousins. 

Parents 
not 
cousins. 

Parents 
cousins. 

Parents 
not 
cousins. 

Total                                               

55,307 

2,449 

52,858 

4-4 

95-6 

Blind  relatives  (a,  b,  or  r)  : 
Blind  relatives                           

10,483 

993 

9,490 

9-5 

90.5 

No  blind  relatives  

44,824 

i,456 

43,368 

3-2 

96.8 

122 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


superior  element  would  be  increased  by 
cutting  off  the  inferior  element  from  re- 
production, and  I  begin  to  suspect  that 
students  of  eugenics  have  overrated  the 
importance  of  legislative  interference 
with  the  marriages  of  the  inferior. 

CELIBATE   FELLOWSHIPS 

A  similar  process  of  reasoning  leads 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  cutting  off  of 
the  superior  element  from  reproduction 
would  retard  the  improvement  of  the  race 
by  lessening  the  production  of  superior 
offspring  without  injuring  the  community 
by  increasing  the  production  of  the  in- 
ferior elements. 

The  establishment  of  celibate  fellow- 
ships in  some  of  the  oldest  of  the  British 
universities  is  a  case  in  point.  The  an- 
nual grants  are  sufficiently  large  to  sup- 
port the  recipients  in  comfort,  so  as  to 
enable  them  to  devote  their  whole  lives 
to  some  branch  of  literature,  science,  or 
art  undisturbed  by  the  necessity  of  earn- 
ing a  livelihood.  Of  course  there  is 
great  competition  to  secure  such  prizes, 
and  the  finest  and  brightest  young  men 
are  selected  by  competitive  examinations 
to  receive  the  fellowships.  Thus  young 
men  of  the  most  brilliant  intellectual  at- 
tainments are  enabled  to  secure  a  support 
for  life — but  only  on  the  condition  of 
celibacy.  The  moment  they  marry  they 
lose  their  fellowships.  If  there  are  many 
of  these  fellowships,  and  if  the  plan  has 
been  in  operation  for  any  considerable 
period  of  time,  it  might  be  well  for 
students  of  eugenics  to  inquire  whether 
the  establishment  of  celibate  fellowships 
in  the  past  has  had  anything  to  do  with 
the  scarcity  of  young  men  of  the  highest 
intellectual  caliber  that  is  so  much  de- 
plored in  England  today.  Whether  it  has 
or  has  not,  it  would  certainly  seem  more 
advisable  in  the  interests  of  the  commu- 
nity that  such  fellowships  should  be 
granted  upon  the  condition  of  marriage 
rather  than  celibacy. 

PREPOTENCY — THE   KEY  TO  THE  PROBLEM 

Superior  individuals  on  the  whole  have 
a  larger  proportion  of  superior  offspring 
than  the  average  of  the  race.  Of  course 
in  cases  where  both  parents  were  superior 


this  prepotency  is  increased.  It  would  be 
still  further  increased  if  all  the  four 
grandparents  were  superior,  and  if  three 
or  four  generations  of  ancestors  were  all 
individually  superior  a  thoroughbred 
would  be  produced.  We  are  all  familiar 
with  the  prepotency  of  the  thoroughbred 
among  animals.  Indeed,  as  I  have  said 
before,  it  is  mainly  through  the  use  of 
thoroughbreds  that  we  improve  our 
stocks  of  domestic  animals.  In  the  case 
of  men  and  women  who  are  thorough- 
bred in  respect  to  the  points  of  superi- 
ority, it  is  obvious  that  their  descend- 
ants, spreading  out  among  the  population 
and  marrying  into  average  or  inferior 
families,  would  prove  prepotent  over  their 
partners  in  marriage  in  affecting  the  off- 
spring, thus  leading  to  an  increase  in  the 
proportion  of  superior  offspring  produced 
from  the  average  or  inferior  with  whom 
they  have  mated.  Thus  not  only  would 
the  proportion  of  superior  offspring  pro- 
duced by  the  community  as  a  whole  be 
increased,  but  the  level  of  superiority  in 
the  superior  class  would  also  be  raised. 
There  would  thus  be  a  general  advance 
in  the  possession  of  desirable  qualities  all 
along  the  line  from  the  lowest  to  the 
highest.  Is  not  this  what  we  mean  by 
improvement  of  the  species? 

LEGISLATIVE     RESTRICTIONS     UPON      MAR- 
RIAGE UNWISE 

This  result,  I  am  inclined  to  believe, 
would  follow  from  the  simple  process  of 
promoting  the  marriage  of  the  superior 
withjhe  superior  without  resort  to  legis- 
lative restrictions  upon  marriage  to  re- 
duce the  production  of  the  inferior. 

Of  course,  such  restrictions  should  be 
considered,  but  the  moment  we  propose 
to  interfere  with  the  liberty  of  marriage 
we  tread  upon  dangerous  ground.  The 
institution  of  marriage  not  only  provides 
for  the  production  of  offspring,  but  for 
the  production  of  morality  in  the  com- 
munity at  large.  This  is  a  powerful  reason 
why  we  should  not  interfere  with  it  any 
more  than  can  possibly  be  helped.  There 
are  other  reasons,  however,  arising  from 
a  consideration  of  the  rights  possessed 
by  individuals  in  a  free  community. 

Among  the   inalienable   rights   recog- 


A  FEW  THOUGHTS  CONCERNING  EUGENICS       123 


nized  by  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
are  "life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  hap- 
piness." The  community  has  no  right 
to  interfere  with  the  liberty  of  the 
individual  and  his  pursuit  of  happiness  in 
marriage  unless  the  interests  of  the  com- 
munity are  demonstrably  endangered. 
The  happiness  of  individuals  is  often  pro- 
moted by  marriage  even  in  cases  where 
the  offspring  may  not  be  desirable.  The 
production  of  undesirable  children  is,  of 
course,  an  injury  to  the  community,  and 
there  may  perhaps  be  cases  where  legal 
checks  may  be  justified;  but  it  should  not 
be  lost  sight  of  that  there  are  other  checks 
that  are  equally  if  not  more  efficient  that 
can  be  brought  into  play.  If  the  condi- 
tions that  produce  undesirable  offspring 
could  be  authoritatively  stated,  pruden- 
tial restraints  are  apt  to  arise  in  cases 
where  defective  offspring  are  likely  to  be 
produced.  Where  the  genera!  intelli- 
gence of  the  individuals  concerned  is  at 
fault,  or  their  duty  to  the  community  is 
not  fully  understood  or  realized,  another 
check  comes  into  play  far  more  efficient 
than  any  legal  restriction.  Public  opinion 
is  a  great  compelling  force  and  few  there 
are  who  can  resist  it. 

Legal  prohibition  of  marriage  should 
only  be  resorted  to  in  cases  where  there 
could  be  no  manner  of  doubt  that  the 
community  would  suffer  as  the  result  of 
the  marriage.  Where  doubt  exists  the 
community  has  no  right  to  interfere  with 
this  most  sacred  and  personal  of  all  re- 
lations ;  and  morality  in  the  community 
would  certainly  be  more  promoted  by 
affording  the  widest  possible  liberty  of 
marriage  than  by  restricting  it.  After 
all,  the  interests  of  the  community  are 
affected  not  so  much  by  the  fact  of  a  mar- 
riage as  by  the  production  of  undesirable 
offspring.  The  only  reason  why  legis- 
lation against  marriage  should  be  con- 
sidered at  all  lies  in  the  fact  that  we 
cannot  well  legislate  against  the  produc- 
tion of  offspring.  Unfortunately  prohi- 
bition of  marriage  does  not  necessarily 
prevent  the  production  of  offspring.  It 
is  surely  advisable  that  the  children  born 
in  a  community  should  have  legal  fathers 
and  mothers  as  much  as  possible.  Public 
opinion,  and  the  desire  of  all  persons  to 
have  healthy  offspring,  would,  in  my 


judgment,  be  a  more  powerful  deterrent 
to  the  production  of  undesirable  offspring 
than  a  compulsory  process  of  law.  Throw 
wide  the  gates  of  marriage,  and  where 
children  are  produced  close  tight  the 
doors  of  divorce.  Every  child  is  entitled 
by  nature  to  a  father  and  mother;  and 
no  people  should  produce  children  who 
are  not  prepared  to  give  them  parental 
care  for  life.  Without  going  to  extremes, 
I  would  say  that  the  interests  of  the  com- 
munity demand  that  we  should  make 
marriage  easy  and  divorce  difficult. 

NEW  BLOOD 

The  problem  of  improving  a  race  of 
human  beings  is  a  most  perplexing  one  to 
handle.  The  process  of  improvement 
must  be  slow  where  the  forces  concerned 
act  from  within  and  are  not  amenable  to 
control  from  without.  Under  the  best 
conditions  it  would  require  several  gener- 
ations to  produce  sensible  results ;  but  in 
the  United  States  we  have,  in  the  new 
blood  introduced  from  abroad,  an  im- 
portant means  of  improvement  that  will 
act  more  quickly  and  that  is  eminently 
susceptible  to  control.  All  the  nations  of 
the  world  are  today  contributing  elements 
to  our  population ;  and  we  have  ,now,  and 
now  only,  the  opportunity  of  studying  the 
process  of  absorption  before  it  is  com- 
plete. Why  should  not  Congress  provide 
for  an  ethnical  survey  of  the  people  of  the 
United  States.  We  should  have  definite 
and  reliable  information  concerning  those 
foreign  elements  which  are  beneficial  to 
our  people  and  those  which  are  harmful. 

The  grand  spectacle  is  presented  to  our 
eyes  of  a  new  people  being  gradually 
evolved  in  the  United  States  by  the  ming- 
ling together  of  the  different  races  of  the 
world  in  varying  proportions.  It  is  of 
the  greatest  consequence  to  us  that  the 
final  result  should  be  the  evolution  of  a 
higher  and  nobler  type  of  man  in  Amer- 
ica, and  not  deterioration  of  the  nation. 

To  this  end  the  process  of  evolution 
should  be  carefully  studied,  and  then  con- 
trolled by  suitable  immigration  laws  tend- 
ing to  eliminate  undesirable  ethnical  ele- 
ments, and  to  stimulate  the  admission  of 
elements  assimilated  readily  by  our  popu- 
lation and  that  tend  to  raise  the  standard 
of  manhood  here. 


124 


THE  CARNEGIE  INSTITUTION 


THE   CARNEGIE   INSTITUTION 

THE  Yearbook  of  the  Carnegie  Insti- 
tution for  1907  just  issued  contains 
a  summary  by  President  Woodward  of 
the  five  years'  work  of  the  institution,  and 
an  outline  of  its  future  plans.  Many  im- 
portant investigations,  too  expensive  or 
extraordinary  for  other  institutions,  and 
requiring  years  of  consecutive  work,  have 
been  begun.  The  benefits  thus  guaran- 
teed to  mankind  cannot  be  measured. 

The  institution  expended  $702,534.39 
in  1907  out  of  its  endowment  income  for 
its  projects  of  research  and  for  publica- 
tion and  administration.  The  aggregate 
receipts  thus  far  from  interest  on  endow- 
ment, etc.,  have  been  $2,891,370.66,  and 
•of  this  sum  in  six  years  there  has  been 
•disbursed  $2,683,073.16. 

President  Woodward  gives  the  follow- 
ing list  of  the  larger  projects,  or  depart- 
ments of  work,  and  of  the  directors 
conducting  the  researches  in  the  depart- 
ments, or  laboratories : 

Botanical  Research :  D.  T.  MacDougal 
Economics  and  Sociology:  Carroll  D.  Wright 
Experimental   Evolution :    Chas.   B.   Davenport 
Geophysical  Laboratory:  Arthur  L.  Day 
Historical  Research :  J.  F.  Jameson 
Marine  Biology:  Alfred  G.  Mayer 
Meridian  Astrometry :  Lewis  Boss 
Nutrition  Laboratory :  Francis  G.  Benedict 
Solar  Observatory:  George  E.  Hale 
Terrestrial  Magnetism:  L.  A.  Bauer. 

To  this  list  may  be  added  the  work  in 
horticulture  carried  on  in  the  main  by  Mr 
Luther  Burbank,  but  in  a  supplementary 
way  also  under  the  auspices  of  a  com- 
mittee consisting  of  the  President  and  the 
heads  of  the  three  departments  of  bio- 
logical research. 

The  minor  projects  and  labors  of  re- 
search have  been  along  the  lines  of : 


Anthropology 

Archeology 

Astronomy 

Bibliography 

Botany 

Chemistry 

Economics 

Engineering 

Exploration 

Geology 

Geophysics 


History 

Literature 

Mathematics 

Meteorology 

Paleontology 

Philology 

Phonetics 

Physics 

Physiology 

Psychology 

Zoology 


Among  the  notable  publications  of  the 
year  is  No.  81,  in  which  Director  Mac- 
Dougal gives  an  account  of  the  produc- 
tion of  a  new  species  of  plant  by  an  appli- 
cation of  chemical  fluids  to  the  parent 
plant  seeds  during  the  period  of  germina- 
tion. This  remarkable  achievement  must 
be  regarded  as  one  of  the  noteworthy  ad- 
vances in  modern  biology. 

In  its  magnetic  survey  of  the  Pacific 
Ocean  up  to  September  i,  1907,  the 
Galilee  has  traversed  nearly  50,000  miles 
in  the  Pacific  Ocean  along  courses  where 
few  magnetic  observations  have  been 
made  hitherto.  Complete  measurements 
of  magnetic  declination,  dip,  and  inten- 
sity were  secured  at  intervals  of  200  to 
250  miles  along  these  courses,  as  well  as 
at  numerous  points  on  islands  and  at 
prominent  ports.  All  of  the  results  of 
this  extensive  survey  available  in  March 
of  the  past  year  were  furnished  to  the 
U.  S.  Navy  Department  and  incorporated 
in  a  magnetic  chart  issued  in  May  last 
by  that  department  for  the  benefit  of 
mariners.  Important  errors  in  previous 
charts,  amounting  in  cases  to  as  much  as 
5°  .in  magnetic  declination  along  some 
main  routes  of  transportation,  were  thus 
corrected. 

The  Department  of  Economics  is  mak- 
ing a  stud}'  of  our  immigrant  population. 

A  JUMPING  SALMON 

THE  picture  on  the  following  page  is 
an  enlargement  of  a  ''snapshot" 
taken  by  Dr  Richard  D.  Harlan,  of  The 
George  Washington  University,  in  Sep- 
tember, 1907,  of  a  salmon  trying  to  leap 
up  the  falls  of  the  River  Shinn,  on  Mr 
Andrew  Carnegie's  estate  at  Skibo,  Scot- 
land. The  fish  were  about  2.y2  feet  long. 
On  that  particular  day  some  of  them 
made  the  effort  at  frequent  intervals,  of  a 
minute  or  two,  to  get  up  the  falls,  which 
were  about  12  feet  high.  None  of  them 
were  successful  on  that  occasion  because 
of  the  great  volume  of  water.  The  fish 
in  this  picture  struck  fully  6  feet  above 
the  level  of  the  lower  stream,  only^  to  be 
hurled  back.  The  picture  has  been  en- 
larged without  any  retouching. 


A  JUMPING  SALMON 


'25 


SALMON  CAUGHT  IN  THE}  ACT  OF  TRYING  TO  LEAP  UP  THE 


OF  THFy  SHINN 


126 


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o  > 

si 


CHILDREN  OF  THE  WORLD 


127 


Copyright,   1908,  by  Underwood  &  Underwood 
BOYS  AND  GIRLS  OF  AVE  MARIA  CHARITY  SCHOOL,  GRANADA,   SPAIN 


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CHILDREN  OF  THE  WORLD 


i  29 


Copyright,   1908,  by  Underwood  &  Underwood! 
PUPILS  OF  A  MISSIONARY  SCHOOL  IN  CHINA 


130 


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CHILDREN  OF  THE  WORLD 


Copyright,   1908,  by   Underwood  &  Underwood 
GIRLS   UNDER  THE  TRESS,   TOKIO,   JAPAN 


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5< 


fir 


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Copyright,    1908,   by   Underwood  &  Underwood 
A  GROUP  OF  BURMESE  CHILDREN 


CHILDREN  OF  THE  WORLD 


133 


Copyright,   1908,  by  Underwood  &  Underwood^ 
INDIA  OF  TOMORROW 
Handsome  school  boys  of  Amritsar  at  the  Golden  Temple  beside  the  Holy  Tank 


134          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


Copyright,   1908,   by   Underwood  &  Underwood 
A  GROUP  OF  SCHOOIv-GIRIvS  IN   KAPIOLANI   PARK,   HONOLULU,   HAWAII 


CHILDREN  OF  THE  WORLD 


'35 


Copyright,   1908,   by   Underwood  &  Underwood 
SCHOOL   IN   CEYLON,   SHOWING  PUPILS,  TEACHER,   AND  SCHOOL-HOUSE 


136 


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CHILDREN  OF  THE  WORLD 


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1 

Is 


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.»   a 


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'38 


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CHILDREN  OF  THE  WORLD 


'39 


Copyright,   1908,  by   Underwood  &  Underwood 
MEETING  AT   MISSION   SCHOOL  AT   NIBUNZA  BOBUNA  VILLAGE,  CONGO 


140 


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Copyright,   1908,  by   Underwood  &  Underwood 
BOYS  STUDYING  ON  THE  HOUSETOP  AT  ASSIOUT,  EGYPT 


TEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

The  following  article  has  been  abstracted  from  the  report  of  the  Secretary  of 
War,  Hon.  William  H.  Taft,  on  his  recent  trip  to  the  Philippines  and  the  opening 
of  the  Philippine  National  Assembly.  The  report  contains  a  review  of  zvhat  the 
United  States  have  done  in  the  Philippine  Islands  since  our  acquisition  of  them 
nearly  ten  years  ago.  The  Americans  are  driving  Asiatic  cholera,  bubonic  plague, 
and  smallpox,  which  formerly  caused  thousands  and  thousands  of  deaths  annually, 
out  of  the  Philippine  Islands  as  thoroughly  as  they  have  freed  Panama  from 
yellow  fever.  President  Roosevelt,  in  transmitting  the  report  to  Congress,  could 
rightly  say: 

"No  great  civilized  power  has  ever  managed  with  such  wisdom  and  disinter- 
estedness the  affairs  of  a  people  committed  by  the  accident  of  war  to  its 
hands.  .  .  .  Save  only  our  attitude  toward  Cuba,  I  question  whether  there 
is  a  brighter  page  in  the  annals  of  international  dealing  betiveen  the  strong  and 
the  weak  than  the  page  which  tells  of  our  doings  in  the  Philippines." 


PEACE  prevails  throughout  the 
Philippines  today  in  a  greater 
degree  than  ever  in  the  history 
of  the  islands,  either  under  Spanish  or 
American  rule,  and  agriculture  is  no- 
where now  impeded  by  the  fear  on 
the  part  of  the  farmer  of  the  incursion 
of  predatory  bands.  A  community  con- 
sisting of  7,000,000  people,  inhabiting 
300  different  islands,  many  of  whom  were 
in  open  rebellion  against  the  government 
of  the  United  States  for  four  years,  with 
all  the  disturbances  following  from  rob- 
ber and  predatory  bands  which  broke  out 
from  time  to  time,  due  to  local  causes, 
has  been  brought  to  a  state  of  profound 
peace  and  tranquillity  in  which  the  people 
as  a  whole  are  loyally  supporting  the 
government  in  the  maintenance  of  order. 
This  is  the  first  and  possibly  the  most  im- 
portant accomplishment  of  the  United 
States  in  the  Philippines. 

Our  national  policy  is  to  govern  the 
Philippine  Islands  for  the  benefit  and 
welfare  and  uplifting  of  the  people  of  the 
islands  and  gradually  to  extend  to  them, 
as  they  shall  show  themselves  fit  to  exer- 
cise it,  a  greater  and  greater  measure  of 
popular  self-government.  One  of  the 
corollaries  to  this  proposition  is  that  the 
United  States  in  its  government  of  the 
islands  will  use  every  effort  to  increase 
the  capacity  of  the  Filipinos  to  exercise 
political  power,  both  by  general  education 
of  the  densely  ignorant  masses  and  by 
actual  practice,  in  partial  self-govern- 
ment, of  those  whose  political  capacity 
is  such  that  practice  can  benefit  it  with- 
out too  great  injury  to  the  efficiency  of 
government.  What  should  be  empha- 


sized in  the  statement  of  our  national  pol- 
icy is  that  we  wish  to  prepare  the  Fili- 
pinos for  popular  self-government. 

THE)  NATIONAL  ASSEMBLY  IS  DEVISED  TO 
TRAIN  THE  EDUCATED  CLASSES  IN  SELF- 
GOVERNMENT  WHILE  THE  IGNORANT 
MASSES  ARE  BEING  EDUCATED 

The  organization  of  the  National  As- 
sembly is  one  of  the  great  steps  in  the 
education  of  the  Filipino  people  for  com- 
plete self-government. 

I  do  not  for  a  moment  guarantee  that 
there  will  not  at  times  be  radical  action 
by  the  Assembly,  which  cannot  meet  the 
approval  of  those  who  understand  the 
legislative  needs  of  the  islands,  but  all  I 
wish  to  say  is  that  the  organization  and 
beginning  of  the  life  of  the  Assembly 
have  disappointed  its  would-be  critics 
and  have  given  great  encouragement  to 
those  who  were  responsible  for  its  exten- 
sion of  political  power. 

The  Assembly  has  shown  a  most 
earnest  desire,  and  its  leaders  have  ex- 
pressed with  the.  utmost  emphasis  their 
intention,  to  labor  for  the  material  pros- 
perity of  the  Philippines  and  to  encour- 
age the  coming  of  capital  and  the  de- 
velopment of  the  various  plans  for  the 
improvement  of  the  agriculture  and  busi- 
ness of  the  islands  which  have  com- 
mended themselves  to  those  in  the  past 
responsible  for  the  government  there. 
In  other  words,  thus  far  the  Assembly 
has  not  manifested  in  any  way  that  ob- 
structive character  which  those  who  have 
prophesied  its  failure  expected  to  sec. 

In  arguing  that  the  Philippines  are  en- 
tirely fit  for  self-government  now,  a  com- 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


mittee  of  educated  Filipinos  once  filed 
with  the  civil  governor  a  written  brief  in 
which  it  was  set  forth  that  the  number  of 
"ilustrados"  in  the  islands  was  double 
that  of  the  offices — central,  provincial, 
and  municipal — and  therefore  the  coun- 
try afforded  two  "shifts"  of  persons  com- 
petent to  run  the  government.  This,  it 
was  said,  made  clear  the  possibility  of  a 
good  government  if  independence  was 
granted.  The  ignorance  of  the  remainder 
of  the  people,  admitted  to  be  dense,  made 
no  difference.  I  cite  this  to  show  of  how 
little  importance  an  intelligent  public 
opinion  or  an  educated  constituency  is 
regarded  in  the  community  and  govern- 
ment which  many  of  the  educated  Fili- 
pinos look  forward  to  as  a  result  of  in- 
dependence. 

THE;  FILIPINO  is  THE:  ONLY  MALAY  RACE 
THAT  is  CHRISTIAN 

No  one  denies  that  80  per  cent  of  the 
Filipino  people  are  densely  ignorant. 
They  are  in  a  state  of  Christian  tutelage. 
They  are  childlike  and  simple,  with  no 
language  but  a  local  Malay  dialect  spoken 
in  a  few  provinces;  they  are  separate 
from  the  world's  progress.  The  whole 
tendency  under  the  Spaniards  was  to 
keep  them  ignorant  and  innocent.  The 
Spanish  public-school  system  was  chiefly 
on  paper.  They  were  for  a  long  time 
subject  completely  to  the  control  of  the 
Spanish  friar,  who  was  parish  priest  and 
who  generally  did  not  encourage  'the 
learning  of  Spanish  or  great  acquaint- 
ance with  the  world  at  large. 

The  world  owes  to  the  Spanish  friar 
the  Christianization  of  the  Filipino  race. 
It  is  the  only  Malay  or  oriental  race  that 
is  Christian.  The  friars  beat  back  the 
wave  of  Mohammedanism  and  spread 
their  religion  through  all  the  islands. 
They  taught  the  people  the  arts  of  agri- 
culture, but  they  believed  it  best  to  keep 
them  in  a  state  of  innocent  ignorance. 
They  feared  the  influence  of  world  knowl- 
edge. They  controlled  the  people  and 
preached  to  them  in  their  own  dialects. 
They  lived  and  died  among  them. 

The  friars  left  the  people  a  Christian 
people — that  is,  a  people  with  western 


ideals.  They  looked  toward  Rome,  and 
Europe,  and  America.  They  were  not 
like  the  Mohammedan  or  the  Buddhisty 
who  despise  western  civilization  as  in- 
ferior. They  were  in  a  state  of  tutelage, 
ripe  to  receive  modern  western  concep- 
tions as  they  should  be  educated  to  un- 
derstand them.  This  is  the  reason  why 
I  believe  that  the  whole  Christian  Filipino 
people  are  capable  by  training  and  ex- 
perience of  becoming  a  self-governing 
people.  But  for  the  present  they  are 
ignorant  and  in  the  condition  of  children. 

THE:     PROBLEM     CAN     BE     SOLVED    BY    THE 
EDUCATION   OF   ONE   GENERATION 

There  is  no  real  difference  between  the 
educated  and  ignorant  Filipinos  that  can- 
not be  overcome  by  the  education  of  one 
generation.  They  are  a  capable  people 
in  the  sense  that  they  can  be  given  a 
normal  intellectual  development  by  the 
same  kind  of  education  that  is  given  in 
our  own  common-school  system.  Now 
they  have  not  intelligence  enough  to  exer- 
cise the  political  franchise  with  safety  to 
themselves  or  their  country ;  but  I  do  not 
see  why  a  common-school  education  in 
English,  with  industrial  teaching  added, 
may  not  make  the  children  of  these  people 
capable  of  forming  an  intelligent  public 
opinion  needed  to  sustain  a  popular  gov- 
ernment if,  at  the  same  time  that  the  on- 
coming generations  are  being  educated 
in  schools,  primary  and  industrial,  those 
who  are  intelligent  are  being  given  a 
political  education  by  actually  exercising 
the  power  of  the  franchise  and  actually 
taking  part  in  the  government. 

The  Philippine  government,  however, 
has  not  funds  enough  to  educate  in  pri- 
mary and  industrial  schools  all  the  pres- 
ent generation  of  school  age,  and  unless 
some  other  source  of  funds  than  govern- 
mental revenues  is  found  it  will  take 
longer  than  a  generation  to  complete  the 
primary  and  industrial  education  of  the 
common  people.  Until  that  is  done,  we 
ought  not  to  lift  our  guiding  hand  from 
the  helm  of  the  ship  of  state  of  the  Phil- 
ippine Islands. 

The  language  selected  for  the  schools 
is  English.  It  is  selected  because  it  is  the 


TEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 


"43 


language  of  business  in  the  Orient,  be- 
cause it  is  the  language  of  free  institu- 
tions, and  because  it  is  the  language 
which  the  Filipino  children  who  do  not 
know  Spanish  are  able  more  easily  to 
learn  than  they  are  to  learn  Span- 
ish, and  it  is  the  language  of  the 
present  sovereign  of  the  islands.  The 
education  in  English  began  with  the  sol- 
diers of  the  American  Army,  one  of 
whom  was  detailed  from  each  company  to 
teach  schools  in  the  villages  which  had 
become  peaceful.  When  the  Commis- 
sion assumed  authority  it  s^ut  to  the 
United  States  for  1,000  American  teach- 
ers, and  after  the  arrival  of  these  pioneers 
in  the  islands  a  system  of  primary  schools 
was  inaugurated  together  with  normal 
schools. 

There  are  engaged  in  the  teaching  of 
these  schools  at  present  717  permanent 
American  teachers  and  109  temporary 
appointees,  and  all  of  these  are  paid  out 
of  the  central  treasury. 

6,000  FILIPINOS  TEACHING  PCNGUSH 

The  6,000  Filipino  teachers  who  are 
now  teaching  English  have  received  their 
English  education  from  our  normal 
schools  or  our  American  teachers.  Their 
number  is  growing,  and  they  represent 
and  are  the  most  valuable  educational 
asset  we  have  acquired  in  working  out 
our  school  system.  The  Filipino  insular 
teachers  are  drawn  from  graduates  of 
normal  schools  and  also  from  the  students 
sent  by  the  government  and  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  government  to  the  United 
States  to  be  educated  there.  Forty-six 
of  these  students  have  recently  returned 
from  the  United  States  and  have  been 
appointed  as  insular  teachers  at  salaries 
ranging  from  840  to  960  pesos  per  an- 
num. We  are  not  able  to  educate  as 
they  should  be  educated  more  than  a 
half  of  the  youth  of  school  age  in  the 
islands.  The  government,  while  contrib- 
uting to  the  maintenance  of  high  schools 
in  each  province,  is  devoting  its  chief  at- 
tention to  the  spread  of  primary  educa- 
tion, and  in  connection  with  primary  edu- 
cation, and,  at  its  close  in  the  interme- 
diate schools,  to  industrial  education. 
Primary  and  industrial  education  carried 


on  until  the  child  is  14  or  15  years  old  is 
thought  to  be  the  best  means  of  develop- 
ing the  Filipino  people  into  a  self-sustain- 
ing and  self-governing  people,  and  the 
present  government  has  done  all  that  it 
has  been  possible  to  do  in  developing  and 
maintaining  a  proper  system  for  this 
purpose. 

ALREADY  MORE  FILIPINOS  SPEAK  ENGLISH 

THAN  SPEAK  SPANISH 

The  influence  of  the  primary  instruc- 
tion in  English  is  shown  throughout  the 
islands  by  the  fact  that  today  more 
people  throughout  the  islands,  outside  of 
Manila  and  the  large  cities,  speak  Eng- 
lish than  speak  Spanish.  At  times,  as 
already  intimated,  a  discordant  note  is 
heard  in  the  suggestion  that  the  American 
government  is  seeking  to  deprive  the 
Filipino  of  his  native  language.  As  his 
native  language  is  really  15  or  16  differ- 
ent dialects,  this  does  not  seem  a  great 
deprivation. 

Should  Congress  be  anxious  to  facili- 
tate and  hurry  on  the  work  of  redeeming 
the  Philippine  Islands  and  making  the 
Filipino  people  a  self-governing  commu- 
nity, it  could  take  no  more  effective  step 
than  a  permanent  appropriation  of  two  or 
three  millions  of  dollars  for  ten  or  fifteen 
years  to  the  primary  and  industrial  edu- 
cation of  the  Filipino  people,  making  it 
conditional  on  the  continued  appropria- 
tion by  the  Philippine  government  of  the 
same  amount  to  educational  purposes 
which  it  has  devoted  and  is  now  devoting 
annually  to  that  purpose.  The  influence 
of  the  educational  system  introduced  has 
not  only  been  direct  in  the  spread  of  edu- 
cation among  the  younger  of  the  present 
generation,  but  it  has  also  been  an  indi- 
rect means  of  convincing  the  Filipino 
people  at  large  of  the  beneficent  purpose 
of  the  American  government  in  its  re- 
maining in  the  Philippine  Islands  and  of 
the  sincerity  of  its  efforts  in  the  interest 
of  their  people. 

FILIPINO  CADETS  AT  WEST  POINT 

Section  36  of  the  act  of  Congress  ap- 
proved February  2,  1901,  referring  to 
Philippine  Scouts,  provides  that— 

"When,  in  the  opinion  of  the  President, 


144 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


natives  of  the  Philippine  Islands  shall, 
by  their  services  and  character,  show  fit- 
ness for  command,  the  President  is  au- 
thorized to  make  provisional  appoint- 
ments to  the  grades  of  second  and  first 
lieutenants  from  such  natives,  who,  when 
so  appointed,  shall  have  the  pay  and 
allowances  to  be  fixed  by  the  Secretary 
of  War,  not  exceeding  those  of  corre- 
sponding grades  of  the  regular  army." 

As  it  is  thought  that  better  results  will 
be  obtained  if  a  few  young  Filipinos, 
especially  selected,  be  appointed  to  the 
United  States  Military  Academy  with  a 
view  to  their  being  commissioned  officers 
of  scouts  upon  graduation,  I  strongly 
recommend  that  Congress,  by  appropri- 
ate legislation,  authorize  the  appointment 
of  seven  young  Filipinos,  or  one  for  about 
every  million  of  inhabitants  of  those 
islands,  as  cadets  at  the  Military  Acad- 
emy at  West  Point.  This  action  on  the 
part  of  Congress  would,  in  my  judgment, 
tend  to  further  increase  the  zeal  and  effi- 
ciency of  a  body  of  troops  which  has 
always  rendered  faithful  and  satisfactory 
services. 

THE;  DEATH  RATE:  OF  AMERICANS  IN  THE: 
PHILIPPINE^  NO  GRE;ATE;R  THAN  IN  OUR 

SOUTHERN  CITIKS 

There  is  always  present  in  every  pic- 
ture of  Philippine  progress  as  painted  by 
those  who  have  not  carefully  investigated 
the  facts  a  somber  background  of  a  bane- 
ful climate,  making  it  impossible  for  the 
American  or  European  to  live  in  health 
and  strength  in  the  islands  for  any  length 
of  time.  It  is  true  that  the  islands  are 
in  the  tropics,  and  that  the  variations  in 
temperature  are  only  about  a  third  as 
much  in  extent  as  in  the  temperate  zone ; 
but,  for  a  tropical  climate,  that  of  the 
Philippines  is  exceptionally  comfortable 
and  healthful.  The  monsoons  blow  six 
months  from  southwest  across  the  islands 
and  six  months  from  the  northeast,  so 
that  they  are  constantly  windswept.  This 
makes  a  radical  difference  between  the 
climate  of  the  islands  and  that  of  the  low- 
lands of  India,  for  instance.  The  last  two 
decades,  especially  the  latter,  have  taught 
us  much  in  respect  to  tropical  diseases, 


their  causes,  their  proper  treatment,  and 
the  best  method  of  avoiding  them.  This 
was  one  of  the  most  valuable  results  of 
the  Spanish  war. 

In  his  address  as  president  of  the  Phil- 
ippine Medical  Association,  in  March. 
1905,  Dr  John  R.  McDill,  who  came  first 
to  the  islands  as  a  leading  army  surgeon 
and  who  left  the  army  to  carry  on  a  most 
successful  practice  in  Manila,  said: 

"We  have  come  to  esteem  to  the  utmost 
the  climate  which  so  effectually  guards 
many  of  you  against  the  too  strenuous 
life   and    which   is    almost    ideal    eight 
months    in    the    year,    even    in     Manila. 
Our  professional  experience  has  proven 
that,  excepting  some  intestinal  disorders 
which  we  are  rapidly  preventing  and  cur- 
ing   and  a  limited  amount  of  epidemic 
infectious  diseases,  there  is  nothing  un- 
usual about  the  kind  or  amount  of  disease 
encountered  here,  or  its  successful  treat- 
ment when  hospital  care  is  available.  The 
surgeon's   work  has   fully   demonstrated 
that  ideal  wound  healing  and  convales- 
cence after  operation  is  as  much  the  rule 
here    as    anywhere    in    the    world.     We 
physicians  also  know  that    and  appreci- 
ate' that  the  dread  diseases  of  childhood 
so  prevalent  at  home  are  rare  here,  and 
that  of  all   the   ills,   particularly  among 
women,   from  real  bodily  ailments  to  a 
poor  complexion,  for  which  the  climate  is 
usually  blamed,   the   great  majority  are 
hereditary    or    acquired,    were    brought 
here  by  the  patient,  and  often  aggravated 
by  careless  and  unhygienic  living.     For 
old  people  and  children   the  climate  is  an 
earthly  Elysium.     .     .     .     With  the  im- 
proved and  constantly  improving  condi- 
tions of  living,  we  believe  that  almost  all 
will  agree  that  by  observing  the  normal 
and   moral   life    healthy   Americans   can 
live  about  as  long  here  and  enjoy  as  good 
health  and  do  as  much  good  and  hard 
work,    more    than    three-fourths    of    the 
year,  as  we  could  in  the  home  land." 

The  death  rate  among  American  soi- 
diers  in  the  Philippines  for  the  last  year 
was  8.5  per  thousand,  and  the  previous 
year  8.65.  General  Wood  reports  that 
the  size  of  the  sick  report  cannot  be  prop- 
erly charged  to  the  c'imate ;  that,  taken 


TEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 


'45 


as  a  whole,  the  reports  for  the  years  in- 
dicate a  decided  improvement  in  health 
conditions,  and  that  the  men  leading  the 
islands  after  a  regular  tour  of  more  than 
two  years  present  a  far  better  appearance 
than  those  of  the  incoming. 

The  death  rate  among  American  civil- 
ians in  Manila  for  the  fiscal  year  ending 
June  30,  1907,  was  5.59  per  thousand,  a 
reduction  from  the  previous  year.  The 
death  rate  among  Filipinos  this  year  in 
Manila  was  36.9  per  thousand  and  among 
Spaniards  15.84,  both  reductions  from  the 
previous  year. 

During  the  decade  of  our  stay  in  the 
islands  the  conditions  of  life  for  Ameri- 
cans have  steadily  bettered.  We  have  be- 
come acquainted  with  hygienic  methods 
of  living,  and  the  death  rate  of  American? 
of  the  same  social  condition  in  the  Phil- 
ippines is  certainly  not  greater  than  in  the 
cities  of  the  Southern  States,  and  is,  as 
we  have  seen,  very  much  less  than  that 
among  Filipinos. 

WE  HOPE)  TO  MAKE:  THE:  FILIPINOS  LARGER 
AND  STRONGER  PHYSICALLY 

If  the  United  States  is  to  continue  its 
governmental  relations  with  the  Philip- 
pines for  more  than  a  generation  and  its 
business  and  social  relations  indefinitely, 
the  fact  that  Americans  can  live  healthful 
lives  in  the  Philippines  is  important  of 
itself;  but  I  have  cited  these  statistics 
and  this  expert  opinion  to  show  more 
than  this — I  believe  that  it  has  an  impor- 
tant bearing  upon  another  kind  of  pro- 
gress possible  among  the  Filipino  people, 
and  that  it  opens  another  important  field 
of  education  for  the  American  govern- 
ment to  cultivate  in  the  islands. 

No  one  can  be  in  the  Philippines  long 
without  realizing  that  as  a  race  the  Fili- 
pinos are  small  of  stature,  slight  of  frame 
and  flesh,  and  with  small  powers  of  re- 
sistance to  epidemic  diseases.  It  has  been 
supposed  that  because  of  their  nativity 
the  Filipinos  were  not  subject  to  the  ma- 
larial, intestinal,  and  dysenteric  troubles 
that  afflict  Americans  and  Europeans,  and 
that  measures  taken  to  avoid  or  cure  such 
troubles  in  the  case  of  the  foreigner  were 
unnecessary  and  superfluous  with  the  Fili- 


pinos. Recent  investigations  of  a  system- 
atic kind,  carried  on  by  keeping  com- 
parative statistics  of  all  the  official  au- 
topsies made  in  the  islands,  seem  to  show 
that  the  assumption  that  the  Filipinos 
are  immune  from  the  forms  of  disease  I 
have  mentioned  is  without  foundation. 
The  autopsies  of  100  cases  showed  in  a 
great  majority  the  germs  of  malaria,  of 
amoebic  dysentery,  and  that  microbe  of 
the  so-called  "lazy"  disease  of  Porto  Rico 
known  as  the  "hookworm."  It  is  true 
that  the  diseases  were  not  active  or  acute, 
but  their  presence  in  the  system  of  course 
weakened  the  constitution  of  the  subject 
and  could  easily  explain  his  anaemic  con- 
dition, his  smallness  of  stature,  and  small 
powers  of  resistance.  Malaria,  of  course, 
is  produced  or  at  least  transmitted  by  the 
mosquito,  while  amoebic  dysentery  and 
the  "lazy"  disease  are  water-borne  and 
proceed  directly  from  the  miserable 
sources  of  water  supply  in  most  Filipino 
towns.  Proper  precautions  can  avoid  all 
these,  or  at  least  can  greatly  reduce  the 
number  of  victims. 

In  Manila,  60  per  cent  of  all  infants 
born  die  during  the  first  year  of  their 
lives,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  believe 
that  infant  mortality  in  other  parts  of  the 
islands  is  less.  This  frightful  percentage 
is  brought  about  by  ignorance  and  neglect 
of  the  mothers  in  feeding  their  babies. 
There  are  very  few,  if  any,  milch  cows  in 
the  islands,  and  the  little  ones  are  fed 
with  all  sorts  of  impossible  things.  They 
die  generally  of  a  lack  of  nourishment. 
There  is  no  reason  why,  if  the  mothers 
were  correctly  taught  and  proper  infant 
food  were  brought  within  the  reach  of  the 
poor,  this  awful  rate  of  infant  mortality 
might  not  be  reduced.  Not  only  is  there 
an  actual  loss  of  life  which  might  be 
avoided,  but  the  babies  which  live 
through  such  treatment  and  nourishment 
are  not  apt  to  make  strong  men  and1 
women,  but  are  likely  to  become  victims 
of  anaemia  and  other  diseases  mentioned^ 
as  shown  in  the  autopsies  I  have  re- 
ferred to. 

I  do  not  think  it  is  unjust  to  the  Span- 
ish regime  in  the  Philippines  to  say  that 
very  little,  if  any,  attention  was  paid  to 


146 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


sanitation  according  to  modern  methods. 
In  the  city  of  Manila  and  in  the  other 
large  towns  of  the  islands  the  American 
military  medical  authorities,  who  were 
the  first  to  assume  responsibility  for  the 
health  of  the  islands,  found  the  same 
utter  disregard  of  the  proper  rules  for 
the  disposition  of  house  sewage  that  was 
found  in  Habana.  Thousands,  yes,  tens 
of  thousands,  of  Filipinos  were  carried 
off  year  after  year  by  a  peculiarly  viru- 
lent type  of  smallpox. 

In  Manila,  in  Cebu,  and  in  Nueva 
Caceres,  respectively,  were  leper  hospit- 
als, but  in  each  the  management  was 
inefficient  and  the  care  of  the  inmates 
poor.  More  than  this,  no  supervision 
was  exercised  to  isolate  lepers  not  in 
hospitals.  Sometimes  the  poor  creatures 
were  driven  out  of  villages  by  popular 
riots  and  herded  together  with  no  proper 
food  and  no  shelter.  The  contact  of 
lepers  with  the  people  of  course  only  in- 
creased the  number  of  cases  of  the  dread 
disease. 

In  1885  or  1886  the  islands  were  visited 
by  an  epidemic  of  cholera,  and  the  pros- 
tration of  the  people  of  Manila  and  the 
Philippines,  due  to  the  rapid  spread  of 
the  scourge,  beggared  description.  In 
Manila  the  deaths  were  1,000  or  more  a 
day  from  that  cause  alone  for  a  number 
of  weeks.  The  trade  proximity  of  Ma- 
nila, Iloilo,  and  Cebu  to  China,  India, 
Java,  Burma,  and  the  Straits  Settlements 
makes  the  danger  of  transmitting  tropical 
and  other  infectious  diseases  very  much 
greater. 

Quarantine  in  Spanish  times  was  lax. 
The  American  Army  medical  authorities 
took  hold  of  the  matter  of  sanitation  in 
their  usual  vigorous  way  and  made  much 
progress  in  the  matter  of  quarantine  and 
in  correcting  the  glaringly  unsanitary 
conditions  in  Manila.  But  it  remained 
for  the  civil  government  to  effect  a  thor- 
ough organization  of  a  health  department 
which  could  do  permanent  good. 

The  introduction  of  sanitary  methods 
by  law  among  the  people  has  given  rise 
to  more  dissatisfaction  and  greater  criti- 
cism of  the  government  than  any  other 


one  cause.  The  truth  is  that  the  people 
have  to  be  educated  in  the  effectiveness  of 
such  methods  before  they  can  become 
reconciled  to  them,  and  the  work  of  the 
health  department  since  the  beginning 
of  the  civil  government,  in  1901,  has  been 
obstructed,  first,  by  the  inertia  and  indif- 
ference of  the  people  in  respect  to  the 
matter,  and,  second,  by  their  active  re- 
sistance to  affirmative  restraints  upon 
them  necessary  to  prevent  disease. 

SMALLPOX  AND  ASIATIC  CHOLERA  STAMPED 
OUT 

The  fight  against  smallpox  has  been  so 
successful  that  in  the  past  year  not  a 
single  death  from  it  occurred  in  Manila, 
and  in  the  provinces  of  Cavite,  Batangas, 
Cebu,  Rizal,  Bataan,  La  Laguna,  and  La 
Union,  where  heretofore  there  have  been 
approximately  6,000  deaths  per  year,  not 
one  was  reported.  In  the  few  places  in 
other  provinces  where  smallpox  appeared 
it  made  little  headway.  More  than 
2,000,000  vaccinations  against  smallpox 
were  performed  last  year,  and  vaccination 
is  being  carried  on  so  that  it  will  reach 
every  inhabitant  of  the  islands. 

In  1902  Asiatic  cholera  appeared.  The 
loss  the  first  year  by  reason  of  the  meth- 
ods introduced  was  much  less  than  it  had 
been  fifteen  or  sixteen  years  before,  but 
great  difficulty  was  encountered  in  put- 
ting into  force  the  health  regulations,  and 
a  futile  attempt  was  made  to  establish 
quarantine  between  localities  in  the 
islands.  Since  that  time  a  better  system 
of  isolation  and  stamping  out  the  dis- 
ease in  the  locality  where  it  appeared  has 
been  followed,  and  it  is  gratifying  to 
note  that,  although  the  dread  disease  ap- 
peared each  year,  it  was  finally  brought 
to  an  end  on  November  27,  1906,  and  the 
authorities  now  feel  that  the  people  have 
been  so  thoroughly  roused  to  the  best 
methods  of  treating  the  disease  that  any 
local  reappearance  of  it  can  be  readily 
suppressed. 

In  1902  or  1903  the  bubonic  plague 
appeared  in  the  islands.  This  has  been 
suppressed  by  the  isolation  of  all  persons 
suffering  from  the  disease  and  the  de- 


TEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 


struction  of  plague-infected  rats,  so  that 
during  the  last  year  there  were  no  cases 
of  bubonic  plague  whatever. 

LEPROSY  ALSO  BEING  ERADICATED 

When  the  Americans  first  began  gov- 
ernment in  the  Philippines  it  was  re- 
ported that  leprosy  was  so  widely  ex- 
tended in  the  islands  that  there  were 
probably  from  25,000  to  50,000  lepers  to 
be  cared  for.  After  many  unsuccessful 
efforts  a  leper  colony  has  finally  been 
established  at  Culion,  a  healthful  and  at- 
tractive island  between  Panay  and  Pala- 
wan, to  which  all  the  lepers  of  the  islands 
are  now  being  gradually  removed.  The 
number  probably  does  not  exceed  3,000. 
The  course  pursued  is  to  take  each  prov- 
ince separately  and  by  thorough  investi- 
gation of  the  reported  cases  of  lepers  de- 
termine those  of  true  leprosy  and  to  re- 
move them  thence  to  the  colony  of  Cu- 
lion. The  experiment  at  first  was  a 
doubtful  one  because  of  the  objection  of 
the  lepers  to  being  taken  so  far  away 
from  their  homes,  and  some  of  the  friends 
of  lepers  made  vigorous  objections 
to  this  course.  After  the  removal  of  the 
first  500,  however,  and  when  they  found 
how  comfortable  and  agreeable  life  at 
Culion  was,  the  objections  ceased.  Lep- 
rosy as  a  disease  usually  does  not  directly 
kill  its  victims,  but  it  so  weakens  the 
powers  of  their  resistance  that  the  rate 
of  mortality  from  other  causes  among 
lepers  is  very  high.  The  system  of  iso- 
lation and  withdrawing  lepers  from  the 
thickly  populated  communities  has  been 
at  once  justified  by  the  reduction  in  the 
number  of  new  cases.  The  number  of 
known  lepers  in  the  archipelago  on  Sep- 
tember i,  1905,  was  3,580;  on  June  30, 
1907,  it  was  2,826,  a  decrease  of  654,  due 
to  the  death  of  the  known  lepers  without 
any  spread  of  the  disease,  as  had  been  the 
case  in  previous  years  and  under  different 
conditions.  The  policy  of  removal  of 
lepers  is  one  which  can  only  be  carried 
out  gradually  and  has  been  applied  onlv 
to  a  part  of  the  provinces,  but  it  will 
probably  be  completed  in  three  or  four 
years,  when  all  the  lepers  will  be  removed 
to  Culion.  and  the  effect  of  this  isolation 


will  certainly  be  to  reduce  the  infection 
of  healthful  persons  with  the  awful  dis- 
ease to  a  minimum. 

RAILROADS   IN   THE   PHILIPPINES 

In  my  last  annual  report  I  set  forth  in 
detail  the  concessions  granted  for  the 
construction  of  railroads  in  Luzon, 
Panay,  Cebu,  and  Negros,  and  showed 
that  within  five  years  we  might  expect 
that,  instead  of  a  single  line  of  railway 
120  miles  in  length,  which  was  all  that  we 
'found  when  we  occupied  the  islands,  we 
would  have  a  system  with  a  mileage  of 
1,000  miles.  Work  has  gone  on  in  full 
compliance  with  the  terms  of  the  conces- 
sions of  the  two  companies. 

Only  one  of  these  companies  took  ad- 
vantage of  the  provision  for  the  guaranty 
of  bonds,  and  they  have  built  about  40 
miles  of  road  and  have  earned,  under  the 
terms  of  the  concession,  the  guaranty  of 
$973,000  of  bonds,  which  has  already 
been  signed  and  delivered  by  the  Philip- 
pine government.  Of  course,  in  this 
financial  panic  these  companies  are  likely 
to  have  difficulty  in  securing  investors  in 
their  securities. 

The  roads  as  constructed  have  been 
well  constructed,  and  are  admirably 
adapted  to  resist  the  climatic  conditions 
in  the  islands.  There  is  no  reason  in  my 
judgment  why  these  roads,  when  con- 
structed, should  not  pay  a  reasonable 
percentage  upon  the  investment.  It  is  of 
the  utmost  difficulty  to  secure  the  coming 
of  capital  to  the  islands,  and  it  would 
greatly  aid  us  if  the  dividends  earned  by 
these  roads  were  very  large.  In  the 
Orient  two-thirds  of  the  income  of  rail- 
ways comes  from  passenger  earnings 
and  one-third  from  freight.  Of  course, 
the  railroads  are  very  essential  to  the 
agricultural  interests  of  the  country  and 
will  directly  affect  the  amount  of  exports 
of  agricultural  products,  so  we  may 
count  on  a  steady  increase  in  the  freight 
receipts  from  the  moment  of  their  be- 
ginning operation.  As  I  say,  however, 
the  chief  hope  for  profit  in  the  railways 
is  in  the  passenger  traffic. 

In  the  three  Visayas,  in  which  the  rail- 
roads are  to  be  constructed,  the  density  of 


i48 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


population  is  about  160  per  square  mile, 
whereas  the  average  population  per 
square  mile  in  the  United  States  in  1900 
was  but  26.  The  Island  of  Cebu  has  a 
population  of  336  per  square  mile,  or  a 
greater  density  than  Japan,  France,  Ger- 
many, or  British  India.  It  is,  therefore, 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  passenger 
earnings  on  these  railroads  will  be  very 
large. 

THE:  FILIPINO  LABORER  IMPROVING 

It  was  anticipated  that  the  labor  prob- 
lem would  be  a  difficult  one  to  solve  in  the 
construction  of  these  roads.  This  has 
not  proved  to  be  true.  The  Philippine 
labor  has  shown  itself  capable  of  in- 
struction, and  by  proper  treatment  of 
being  made  constant  in  its  application. 
Of  course,  the  prices  of  labor  have 
largely  increased,  but  the  companies  con- 
structing the  roads  have  found  it  wise  to 
increase  wages,  and  thereby  secure 
greater  efficiency.  Even  with  increased 
wages  the  cost  of  unit  of  result  is  less  in 
the  Philippines  in  the  construction  of 
railways  than  it  is  in  the  United  States. 

I  do  not  hesitate  to  prophesy  that  dur- 
ing the  next  twenty-five  years  a  develop- 
ment will  take  place  in  the  agricultural 
and  other  business  of  the  Philippine 
Islands  which  will  be  as  remarkable  in 
its  benefits  to  the  United  States  and  the 
Philippine  Islands  as  was  the  develop- 
ment of  Alaska  during  the  last  ten  or  fif- 
teen years.  Hope  of  this  is  not  what  has 
actuated  the  government  in  pursuing  the 
policy  that  it  has  pursued  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  islands,  but  this  is  as  inevi- 
table a  result  as  if  it  had  been  directly 
sought,  and  perhaps  the  absence  of  sel- 
fishness in  the  development  of  the  islands 
is  a  greater  assurance  of  profitable  return 
than  if  business  exploitation  by  the 
United  States  had  been  the  chief  and  sole 
motive.  The  growth  in  the  production 


of  hemp  and  other  fiber  products,  in 
cocoanuts,  in  rubber  and  many  other 
tropical  crops,  and  in  peculiar  manufac- 
tures of  the  islands  may  be  looked  for- 
ward to  with  certainty. 

The  city  of  Manila  has  not  been  given 
autonomous  government.  It  is  under  the 
control  of  a  municipal  board  of  five  per- 
sons appointed  by  the  central  government, 
and  is  governed,  therefore,  as  Washington 
or  the  City  of  Mexico  is  governed.  In 
the  proper  improvement  of  Manila  some 
six  or  eight  millions  of  dollars  had  to  be 
expended,  and  much  business  experience 
and  foresight  were  required  to  build  the 
new  water  works  and  the  new  sewer  sys- 
tem, to  repave  the  streets,  to  canalize  the 
esteros,  or  creeks,  to  organize  an  effective 
police  force  and  a  new  fire  department. 
It  was  thought  that  it  would  not  be  safe 
to  intrust  the  conduct  of  such  important 
business  matters  to  a  body  selected  by 
the  electorate  of  Manila  for  the  first  time. 
The  city  of  Manila  has  been  well  gov- 
erned. Very  large  sums  of  money  have 
been  expended  in  most  extensive  im- 
provements, and  not  the  slightest  scandal 
or  dishonesty  has  been  charged  in  any  of 
the  city  administration.  It  has  offered  a 
most  useful  model  for  other  municipal- 
ities in  the  islands  to  follow  and  has  lent 
engineers,  policemen,  and  firemen  to 
other  towns  to  help  the  latter  to  better 
organization. 

There  is  no  city  in  the  world  better 
governed  than  Manila.  The  streets  are 
well  cleaned,  are  well,  policed,  there  is  a 
most  excellent  fire  department,  the  parks 
are  being  enlarged  and  improved,  the 
street-car  system  is  as  good  as  anywhere, 
and  with  the  improvements  in  the  water 
supply  the  sewerage  system  and  esteros 
or  canals,  which  are  now  under  foot  and 
part  of  which  are  quite  near  accom- 
plished, the  face  which  the  Filipinos  turn 
toward  the  world  in  the  city  of  Manila 
will  be  a  most  pleasing  one. 


A   BEAR   HUNT   IN   MONTANA 

BY  ARTHUR  ALVORD  STILES 
TOPOGRAPHER,  U.  S.  GEOLOGICAL  SURVEY 


WITH  the  end  of  the  hunting 
season  in  the  Far  West  there 
comes  to  light  a  true  and  ex- 
citing bear  story — one  that  well  might 
have  made  the  bravest  hunter  look  to  his 
safety,  or  even  have  thrilled  the  sports- 
man spirit  of  President  Roosevelt  himself. 
The  incident  occurred  last  September 
in  the  forest  of  northwestern  Montana. 
The  party  consisted  of  Dr  Charles  B. 
Penrose,  a  well-known  physician  of  Phil- 
adelphia, the  victim  of  bruin's  ferocious 
attack,  and  his  two  brothers,  Spencer 
Penrose,  of  Colorado  Springs,  and  Sen- 
ator Bois  Penrose,  of  Pennsylvania,  now 
in  Washington.  The  party  had  spent  the 
early  part  of  the  season  exploring  a  sec- 
tion of  the  Lewis  and  Clark  Forest  Re- 
serve, where  trails  were  to  be  found  and 
where  travel  with  the  pack-horses  was 
comparatively  easy.  Toward  the  end  of 
the  summer,  however,  Senator  Penrose 
desired  to  see  a  part  of  the  country  hith- 
erto unsurveyed  and  without  trails  or 
passways  of  any  kind.  It  is  a  section  of 
high  and  rugged  mountain  peaks,  snow- 
fields,  and  living  glaciers,  wholly  unin- 
habited except  by  the  wild  animals,  and 
wellnigh  inaccessible  save  in  the  dead  of 
winter,  when  some  adventurous  soul  of 
doubtful  judgment  might  make  his  way 
thither  on  snowshoes. 

As  it  happened,  a  small  party  of  topo- 
graphical surveyors  of  the  U.  S.  Geo- 
logical Survey  was  then  penetrating  into 
this  God-forsaken  region,  carrying  with 
them  their  pack-train  of  mules,  camp 
equipment,  and  map-making  instruments. 
This  was  the  first  pack  outfit  of  any  kind 
to  enter  into  the  territory.  Senator  Pen- 
rose  and  his  brothers  joined  the  govern- 
ment party,  and  by  them  were  conducted 
well  up  among  the  snow-capped  peaks  of 
the  range. 

Continued  bad  weather  having  stopped 
the  work  of  the  surveyors  and  made  all 
mapping  impossible,  the  writer,  who  was 
chief  of  the  government  party,  offered  to 


take  Senator  Penrose  out  for  a  hunt. 
The  Senator  and  his  younger  brother, 
however,  were  tired  out  with  the  long  and 
difficult  journey  to  the  government  camp, 
so  Dr  Penrose,  who  had  endured  the  hard 
climb  better  than  his  brothers,  volun- 
teered to  accompany  me  to  a  distant  gla- 
cier basin,  where  they  expected  to  find 
big  game.  The  saddle  horses  were  left 
at  the  head  of  this  basin,  and,  little  know- 
ing of  the  fate  that  awaited  them,  the  two 
men  separated. 

I  had  just  sighted  a  fine  buck  deer  and 
was  on  the  point  of  creeping  away  from 
it  so  that  Dr  Penrose  might  come  and 
kill  it,  when  I  heard  three  shots  in  rapid 
succession.  I  gave  no  special  heed  to  the 
reports,  which  came  from  the  other  side 
of  the  ridge,  and  was  about  turning  to 
shoot  the  deer  myself,  when  I  heard  two 
more  shots ;  a  moment  more  and  another 
report  rang  out.  Immediately  becoming 
alarmed,  I  ran  back  in  the,  direction  from 
whence  the  shots  came.  *  I  suppose  I 
reached  the  doctor  in  about  five  or  ten 
minutes.  As  I  came  around  a  mass  of 
broken  boulders  I  saw  Dr  Penrose 
wandering  aimlessly  around  in  the  canyon 
bed.  He  had  no  gun.  His  hat  was  gone, 
his  coat  torn  off,  and  his  trousers  rent. 
Blood  poured  from  his  head  and  neck, 
and  he  gripped  his  left  arm  in  his  crim- 
son right  hand.  When  I  reached  him  he 
murmured  piteously,  "Water,  water."  I 
ran  and  brought  water  in  my  big  som- 
brero from  the  other  side  of  the  rocks. 
He  drank  it  like  a  thirsty  horse,  and  I 
thought  I  saw  part  of  it  run  out  through 
a  gash  in  his  cheek.  Then  he  said : 
"Stiles,  I  am  all  in  ;  I  have  had  a  fight 
with  a  bear." 

With  signal  cloth  I  hurriedly  began  to 
tie  up  the  worst  of  his  wounds,  and  as  I 
did  so  the  picture  and  the  bleeding  man 
told  me  the  story.  A  few  rods  down  the 
gulch  lay  a  grizzly  cub,  so  large  as  to  ap- 
pear full-grown,  except  to  the  c?  refill 
observer.  Near  by  was  the  huge  carcass 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


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A  BEAR  HUNT  IN  MONTANA 


of  a  mother  grizzly,  and  near  her  the 
doctor's  Mauser  rifle,  cast  aside  and 
empty.  All  was  plain  now.  In  his  ex- 
citement Dr  Penrose  had  not  noted  that 
the  bear  which  his  first  three  shots  had  so 
promptly  slain  was  yet  a  young  cub, 
whose  grief-stricken  and  enraged  mother 
might  then  be  making  her  way  from  the 
rocks  and  brush  to  avenge  the  death  of 
her  offspring.  Going  down  to  examine 
his  prize,  he  placed  his  rifle  on  a  rock, 
fortunately  not  far  away. 

He  was  stooping  over  the  dead  cub 
when  there  came  from  behind  him  a  rush 
and  an  awful  cry.  He  turned  and  saw 
the  mother  bear  coming  upon  him,  then 
not  sixty  feet  away.  With  almost  super- 
human presence  of  mind  Dr  Penrose 
caught  up  his  Mauser  again  and  fired  two 
shots  into  the  enraged  beast.  Instantly 
he  took  from  his  pocket  his  last  remaining 
cartridge,  worked  it  into  the  rifle,  and  sent 
a  third  steel-jacketed  bullet  into  the  on- 
rushing  bear.  Swift  and  sure  as  were  the 
little  bullets,  the  bear's  fury  was  not 
checked  in  time.  With  one  stroke  of  her 
paw  she  sent  him  into  the  gulch,  eight 
feet  below.  She  sprang  down  after  him 
and  caught  him  in  her  mouth  and  shook 
him  as  a  cat  might  shake  a  mouse.  She 
dropped  him.  Again  she  caught  him  up, 
his  face  between  her  glistening  tusks. 
She  tore  his  scalp ;  his  eyes  narrowly  es- 
caped. A  tusk  penetrated  into  his  mouth 
from  the  side  of  his  cheek ;  another  tore 
open  his  throat.  There  were  five  gaping 
wounds  in  his  chest.  His  thigh  bore  an 
awful,  irregular  tear,  and  the  flesh  hung 
in  ragged  pieces  from  the  wound,  half  as 
wide  as  your  hand.  His  left  wrist  was 
twisted  and  broken,  and  the  bones  stuck 
out  through  the  quivering  flesh.  The  bear 
tried  once  more  to  shake  her  half-dead 
victim,  but  she  sickened  with  her  own 
awful  wounds,  and,  staggering,  fell  dead 
at  his  feet. 

The  little  Mauser  bullets,  fired  a  mo- 
ment before,  had  finally  had  their  deadly 
effect,  and  by  his  steady  nerve  and  ac- 
curate aim  Dr  Penrose  had  saved  his  own 
life.  Had  the  beast  lasted  another  half 
minute  the  doctor  would  have  been  with 
his  fathers,  and  the  little  cub's  death 
would  have  been  avenged.  But  the  heroic 


mother  had  fought  to  the  last,  and  mnv. 
with  her  dead  baby,  lay  quiet  and  still 
forever. 

Recovering  sufficiently,  the  bleeding 
man  sat  up  and  began  to  take  stock.  As 
he  meditated  thus,  there  came  a  new  ad- 
versary. In  actual  fact,  or  in  the  suffer- 
ing man's  delirous  fancy — I  have  never 
known  which — a  third  bear  bounded  out 
of  the  brush  from  another  direction.  The 
doctor's  heart  sank;  he  could  make  no 
resistance  now;  he  hoped  that  death 
might  come  quickly.  The  new  enemy 
approached  to  close  quarters,  and,  walk- 
ing around,  snarled  and  growled  sav- 
agely, yet  was  evidently  undecided  what 
to  do.  Then,  with  a  cry  of  mingled  rage 
and  fright,  it  dashed  off  down  the  gulch 
and  was  lost  in  the  forest. 

The  journey  back  to  camp  was  diffi- 
cult and  dangerous,  but  the  suffering  doc- 
tor, who  now  began  to  realize  his  fright- 
ful condition,  was  bearing  up  bravely. 
Wrapping  my  big  cow-boy  slicker  around 
him,  I  managed  to  get  him  on  my  horse, 
and  we  turned  back  to  the  camp,  where 
we  had  left  the  Penrose  party.  My  faith- 
ful horse  did  his  duty  nobly,  as  we 
climbed  and  stumbled  along  for  two 
hours  without  a  trail,  at  last  reaching  the 
teepees  at  nightfall.  The  unexpected 
sight  of  the  wounded  and  bleeding  doctor 
somewhat  demoralized  the  group  of  wait- 
ing men,  and  after  some  delay  a  pine- 
knot  camp-fire  was  made  for  light,  and 
with  the  patient  lying  at  full  length  on  the 
ground  I  began  my  surgical  operations, 
assisted  by  such  much-needed  instruction 
as  the  doctor,  in  his  awful  pain,  could 
give  me  while  the  work  progressed.  I 
applied  antiseptics  and  placed  bandages, 
all  of  which  happily  he  had  with  him  in  a 
small  emergency  case.  Finally  the  broken 
wrist  was  reached.  It  was  agreed  that  I 
should  remove  the  protruding  bones,  the 
nervy  patient  thinking  he  could  endure 
the  pain  of  the  operation  without  anes- 
thetics. I  disinfected  the  little  knives  and 
appliances  and  the  last  operation  began. 
The  pain  was  awful.  With  one  agonized 
groan  the  man  gave  up  for  the  first  time. 
We  held  a  hurried  conference.  The  wrist 
would  have  to  be  left  as  it  was,  and  we 
bound  it  up  once  more  in  signal  cloth.  It 


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Photos  by  Robert  H.  Chapman  and  H.  L,.  Baldwin 
TYPICAL  VIEWS  IN  NORTHWESTERN  MONTANA 
Showing  barren  and  rugged  peaks  and  heavily-forested  valleys 


A  BEAR  HUNT  IN  MONTANA 


'S3 


Photos  by  Robert  H.  Chapman  and  H.  L-  Baldwin 
PACK-TRAIN  CROSSING  THE  RANGE 
View  from  Kootenai  Mountain,  looking  south 


'54 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


was  one  o'clock  in  the  morning  when  I 
finished  my  amateur  surgery.  Thoroughly 
distracted  by  the  sight  of  their  brother's 
suffering,  Senator  Penrose  and  Spencer 
withdrew  to  another  tent,  and  I  lay 
down  near  Dr  Penrose  to  wait  for  dawn. 

My  life  on  the  frontier  has  been  full  of 
trying  episodes,  but  oh,  that  night !  How 
would  we  get  Dr  Penrose  out  of  the 
mountains?  I  dare  not  guess  how  many 
times  I  asked  myself  that  question.  As 
the  gloomy  hours  dragged  by  I  listened 
to  the  heavy  breathing  of  the  man  whose 
nerve  and  fortitude  I  had  already  come  to 
admire,  now  asleep  and  groggy  with  the 
morphine  injected  to  stop  his  unbearable 
suffering. 

To  go  back  the  way  we  came  up  would 
mean  two  days  and  a  6oo-foot  climb  on 
foot.  He  could  not  last.  By  the  second 
day  we  would  be  packing  out  a  dead 
body.  Yet  there  was  no  other  route. 
The  situation  was  desperate.  In  the 
lonely  flickering  of  that  camp-fire  I  medi- 
tated, and  my  sympathies  went  out  to  that 
wounded  man.  As  the  case  presented 
itself  at  that  moment  success  in  guiding 
the  party  to  the  railroad  meant  the  doc- 
tor's life,  if  not  his  comfort ;  failure  meant 
death,  simply.  Before  that  welcome 
dawn  had  come  I  decided  to  run  a  haz- 
ard. We  would  take  Dr  Penrose  to  the 
railroad  by  an  unheard  of  route.  Provi- 
dence might  point  the  way. 

At  dawn  the  little  caravan  started. 
Again  the  big  black  horse  carried  the 


almost  helpless  doctor,  Senator  Penrose 
and  Spencer  walking  on  either  side  to 
steady  their  brother  through  the  tight 
places.  The  faithful  guide,  Bill  Hague, 
lead  the  extra  "packs,"  and  two  young 
men  from  the  Survey  party,  Malcolm 
Force,  of  Montclair,  New  Jersey,  and 
Billy  Kemeys,  of  Washington,  D.  C.r 
worked  as  axemen.  Thus,  for  eleven 
hours,  we  climbed  down,  down,  down, 
five  miles  through  the  forest  and  jungle, 
cutting  our  way  as  we  went.  At  dark  we 
dropped  through  to  the  railroad,  com- 
pletely exhausted,  but  safe.  Our  route 
had  proved  successful.  I  could  not  have 
cut  another  tree  or  broken  another  brush, 
and  my  two  Survey  boys  had  stood  by 
me  like  men. 

Quickly  we  conducted  Dr  Penrose  to  a 
lonely  section-house  two  miles  down  the 
track,  where  the  Great  Northern  Limited 
was  flagged,  and  he  was  taken  away  to 
Minnesota,  where,  three  days  later,  he 
was  operated  upon  by  the  surgeons  at 
the  Mayo  Hospital.  Since  then  he  has 
retired  to  his  country  home  near  Phila- 
delphia. Though  his  recovery  is  not  yet 
complete,  his  progress  has  been  very  re- 
markable. 

As  a  memento  of  the  encounter  with 
the  bear,  Dr  Penrose  has  presented  the 
writer  with  a  beautiful  Mauser  rifle,  im- 
ported from  the  Krupp  works  at  Essenr 
Germany.  In  the  stock  of  the  rifle  is  set 
a  little  silver  nameplate  which  bears  the 
simple  inscription :  "Arthur  Stiles,  from 
C.  B.  Penrose." 


VOL.  XIX,  No.  3 


WASHINGTON 


MARCH,  1908 


A  JOURNEY    THROUGH    THE    EASTERN 
PORTION  OF  THE  CONGO  STATE* 

BY  MAJOR  P.  H.  G.  POWELL-COTTON 


MY  principal  quest  in  my  recent 
journey  to  the  Congo  State  was 
the  northern  white  rhino,  known 
only  by  a  single  specimen,  shot  by  its  dis- 
coverer, Major  Gibbons,  and  eventually 
sent  to  America.  My  search  for  the  ani- 
mal, and  for  a  couple  of  elephants  stand- 
ing as  near  12  feet  in  height  as  possible, 
occupied  five  and  a  half  months.  During 
this  time  I  made  the  Congo  stations  along 
the  Nile  my  headquarters  for  short  expe- 
ditions westward  into  the  plain.  All 
these  posts  are  malarious  and  swarm 
with  mosquitoes — Kiro,  the  most  pic- 
turesque of  them  all,  being  literally  in- 
fested. In  fact,  the  Enclave  generally 
must  rank  among  the  most  unhealthy  dis- 
tricts of  Central  Africa ;  in  one  year  the 
•death-rate  among  the  Europeans  rose 
to  over  20  per  cent. 

On  my  arrival  at  Lado,  the  chief  sta- 
tion on  the  White  Nile,  in  the  latter  part 
of  December,  and  throughout  the  first 
fortnight  of  January  (the  dry  season), 
the  heat  was  intense,  the  thermometer 
standing  as  high  as  104°  in  my  tent  at 
2  p.  m.  Once  away  from  the  Nile,  the 
scarcity  of  water  proved  a  great  diffi- 
culty. Stagnant  pools  in  the  river  beds, 


fouled  by  man  and  beast,  and  these  only 
at  rare  intervals,  formed  the  sole  supply. 
In  the  rainy  season  so  much  of  the  coun- 
try lies  under  water  that  traveling  is 
almost  impossible.  Owing  to  the  flatness 
of  the  thorn-dotted  plain,  Lado  Hill 
forms  a  conspicuous  landmark  for  many 
miles.  This  district  is  peopled  by  the 
Bari,  a  peculiar  feature  of  whose  huts  is 
the  floor,  sunk  18  inches  below  the  sur- 
face of  the  ground — a  method  of  con- 
struction which  appears  particularly 
curious  in  view  of  the  heavy  rainy  season. 
As  my  caravan  moved  farther  south- 
ward I  was  struck  by  the  numerous 
ruins  of  villages  and  almost  continuous 
stretches  of  what  had  once  been  culti- 
vated ground.  It  was  evident  that  at  no 
very  distant  date,  probably  before  the 
dervish  raids  had  devastated  the  coun- 
try, it  must  have  supported  a  considerable 
population.  Much  of  the  ground  had 
been  terraced  and  cleared  of  stones.  The 
village  sites  were  marked  by  numerous 
circles,  some  6  yards  in  diameter,  formed 
of  wide,  thin  stones  set  upright  and 
standing  some  18  inches  to  2  feet  above 
the  surface.  The  top  of  each  of  these 
stones  was  nicked  to  receive  the  end  of  a 


*  An  address  to  the  Royal  Geographical  Society,  and  published  in  this  Magazine  through  the 
courtesy  of  the  Geographical  Journal  (London). 


iS6 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


roof-pole.  Here  and  there  a  double  cir- 
cle of  stones  denoted  a  hut  built  after  the 
form  of  the  modern  Abyssinian  tucal, 
with  a  passage  round  it.  Judging  from 
a  few  higher  stones  still  standing,  these 
villages  had  evidently  been  surrounded 
by  a  palisade.  At  the  present  time  the 
population  is  scanty,  so  that  considerable 
difficulty  is  found'  in  provisioning  the 
sta^ons.  The  greater  part  of  the  grain 
for  iry  men  had  to  be  drawn  from  a  dis- 
trict several  days  east  of  the  Nile,  on  the 
Uganda  side. 

PRIMITIVE:  BLACKSMITHS 

Working  southward  from  Rejaf,  I 
struck  up  the  valley  of  the  Kaya,  where 
scattered  settlements  of  nomad  Bari  plied 
the  double  trade  of  fishermen  and  black- 
smiths. The  women  generally  took  their 
part  in  the  work  as  well  as  the  men.  In 
little  hollows  on  the  flat  surface  of  a  rock, 
they  would  pound  the  filbert-like  nuts  of 
iron  ore  to  powder.  This  was  then  car- 
ried to  the  smelting  pits  near  by,  grass- 
roofed  constructions  shaped  like  the  let- 
ter V  and  encircled  in  heaps  of  dross  and 
charcoal.  Here  and  there  couples  of  men 
were  hard  at  work  forging  hoes,  one  of 
them  beating  the  mass  of  glowing  metal 
into  shape  with  two  stones,  to  serve  the 
purpose  of  hammer  and  anvil,  while  his 
companion  plied  the  bellows.  One  of  the 
blacksmiths  told  me  that  the  iron  ore  is 
collected  from  the  surface  of  the  ground 
at  a  place  ten  days  distant.  When  the 
hoes  are  completed  they  are  taken  over 
to  the  great  chief  of  the  Bari  tribe,  on 
the  Uganda  side,  who  buys  them  for 
flour. 

As  the  caravan  drew  nearer  Wadelai, 
I  found  a  stretch  of  country  which 
proved  to  be  the  favorite  haunt,  at  that 
time  of  year,  of  not  only  white  rhino,  but 
bull  elephants.  Here  I  was  able  to  re- 
alize the  two  chief  objects  of  my  visit 
to  the  Enclave,  by  securing  a  complete 
skin  and  skeleton  of  a  white  rhino  bull 
and  the  hides  of  two  elephants  nearly  12 
feet  in  height.  One  of  these  latter  was 
destined  for  the  British  Natural  History 
Museum,  whose  director  had  been  trying 
to  procure  such  a  specimen  for  the  last 


three  years.  The  other  I  proposed  pre- 
senting to  the  Tervueren  Museum  near 
Brussels.  The  preservation  of  these 
skins  gave  great  trouble,  but  they  were 
eventually  sent  off  in  good  condition  to 
Kampala,  which  place,  thanks  to  the 
courtesy  of  the  late  Mr  Fowler,  sub-com- 
missioner Nile  provinces  and  collector  at 
Hoima,  they  reached  in  excellent  time. 
But  unfortunately,  for  some  reason  yet 
to  be  explained,  the  skins  were  after- 
wards detained  so  long  that  the  lake- 
shore  climate  completely  ruined  them,  to 
the  loss  of  the  museums  and  to  my  dis- 
gust, for  there  was  a  heavy  bill  of  car- 
riage to  pay.  When  two  years  previ- 
ously, in  1903,  I  traversed  the  country 
between  Wadelai  and  Mahagi  Bay,  at  .the 
northwestern  corner  of  Lake  Albert,  it 
was  practically  depopulated,  for  the  vil- 
lagers had  moved  over  to  the  Uganda 
side,  Now,  to  my  surprise,  I  found  new 
villages  being  established  all  along  the 
route,  the  natives  having  returned  to 
escape  the  Uganda  hut-tax. 

From  Mahagi  Bay  station  we  pushed 
our  way  up  the  hills  to  Mahagi  proper, 
lying  4$4  hours  from  the  lake  and  1,180 
feet  above  it.  Here,  as  in  all  other  sta- 
tions I  had  visited,  great  improvements 
were  to  be  seen.  New  brick  houses  had 
been  constructed  and  stretches  of  bush 
had  been  cleared  to  give  place  to  vege- 
table gardens  and  cultivation.  My  route- 
now  led  over  the  Nile-Congo  watershed,, 
a  series  of  rolling  grass  hills  intersected 
by  running  streams  fringed  with  belts  of 
timber.  My  highest  camp  was  at  Mon- 
golula,  at  an  elevation  of  5,950  feet.  This 
region  is  for  the  greater  part  very 
sparsely  inhabited  and  gives  promise  of 
one  day  becoming  a  valuable  grazing 
ground  for  white  settlers.  Through 
Irumu  bands  of  natives  were  passing  on 
their  way  to  the  Kilo  gold  mines,  where 
work  on  the  alluvial  deposits  has  been 
successfully  commenced,  some  35  ounces 
of  ^old  being  washed  per  day. 

The  Ituri  River,  a  day's  journey  from 
Irumu,  forms  the  dividing  line  between 
the  grass  land  and  the  great  forest. 
When  my  canoe  had  almost  crossed  the 
clear,  rapid  waters,  150  yards  wide,  T 


A  JOURNEY  THROUGH  THE  CONGO  STATE        157 


MAJOR  POWELL-COTTON  WITH  TWO  OF  HIS  PYGMY  TRACKERS 


noticed  on  the  opposite  bank  two  minia- 
ture houses  built  close  to  the  edge  and 
resembling  in  every  feature  the  huts  of 
the  villagers.  The  old  chief  was  loth  to 
explain  the  object  of  these  houses,  but  at 
length  I  was  told  that  they  were  erected 
for  the  shade  of  his  predecessor,  who  was 
told  that  he  must  recompense  them  for 
their  labors  by  guarding  the  passage  of 
those  crossing  the  river.  From  that  time, 
whenever  a  caravan  was  seen  to  approach 
the  bank  a  little  food  would  be  carried 
down  to  the  ghost-houses  as  a  warning 
that  the  shade's  protection  was  needed 
for  the  caravan  about  to  cross. 

THE  GREAT  FOREST 

The  great  Ituri  forest,  rendered  fa- 
mous by  Stanley's  remarkable  journey 
across  it,  differed  greatly  from  the  dismal 
miasmic  place  of  my  imagination,  where 
unhealthy  mists  and  perpetual  twilight 
reigned  supreme.  Far  from  shutting  out 
the  sunshine,  the  lofty  dome  of  interlaced 
branches  above  our  heads  only  served  to 
soften  the  pitiless  heat  of  the  equatorial 
sun.  Myriads  of  little  sunbeams  filtered 


through  the  leaves,  to  settle  on  the  under- 
growth in  bright  patches  of  light,  where 
the  butterflies  and  birds  loved  to  flit  to 
and  fro.  In  the  morning,  it  is  true,  the 
foliage  would  often  be  heavy  with  dew- 
drops  and  gossamer,  but  before  eight  the 
sunbeams  had  lifted  the  mists  from  the 
dense  undergrowth,  the  giant  trees,  and 
the  graceful  creepers  that  flung  their  fan- 
tastic coils  and  festoons  from  branch  to 
branch  and  from  tree  to  tree.  It  was  in 
the  early  morning  that  one  felt  the  hush 
of  the  great  forest,  whose  impressive 
stillness  was  only  broken  by  the  crackling 
of  the  sticks  under  the  feet  of  our  cara- 
van. Here  and  there  in  the  forest  are 
little  natural  glades,  called  by  the  natives 
"eddos,"  some  watered  by  sluggish 
marshy  streams  that  almost  lose  them- 
selves in  the  rich  grass,  while  in  others 
the  waters  rush  and  tumble  over  the  clear 
quartz  sand-beds  and  among  moss-grown 
boulders.  Dark  tunnels,  worn  through 
the  undergrowth  by  generations  of  beasts 
on  their  way  to  water,  lead  down  to  these 
rifts  in  the  dense  vegetation ;  for  it  is 
here  that  the  beasts  of  the  forest,  fromi 


i58 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


A  GROUP  OF  PYGMIES 


elephant  to  the  timid  little  dik-dik,  come 
down  to  drink,  bathe,  and  crop  the  fine 
grass  at  the  water's  edge. 

The  seasons  in  the  forest  are  very  ill- 
defined.  Generally  rain  falls  on  four  or 
five  days  of  every  week,  while  seven  days 
without  a  thunderstorm  was  the  longest 
dry  period  I  experienced.  In  any  big 
clearing  it  was  curious  to  hear  a  storm 
coming  up,  for  the  sound  of  the  drops 
pattering  on  the  leaves  of  the  trees 
reached  us  long  before  the  rain.  The 
roar  of  a  hurricane  through  the  forest 
was  an  experience  never  to  be  forgotten. 
Our  camp  was  nearly  wrecked  on  one 
occasion,  and  a  passage  several  hundred 
yards  wide  was  cleared  through  the  trees 
for  a  distance  of  some  miles.  In  1905 
I  was  in  the  forest  from  the  last  few 
days  of  June  to  the  first  half  of  August, 
while  in  the  following  year  I  spent  from 
the  last  week  of  January  to  the  first  days 
of  August  in  practically  the  same  dis- 
tricts. July  of  1905,  passed  between 
Irumu  and  Mawambi,  was  by  far  the 
wettest  month  of  the  ten.  The' following 


July,  however,  spent  between  Makala, 
Mawambi,  and  towards  Beni,  was  one  of 
the  driest.  While  the  forest  is  damp,  I 
came  across  but  very  few  boggy  places 
and  no  large  marshes.  Mosquitoes  are 
almost  unknown. 

THE  DENIZENS  OF  THE  FOREST 

The  population  of  the  forest  is  numer- 
ous, from  the  pygmies,  considered  to  be 
the  most  savage  and  primitive,  to  the 
Mongwana,  the  followers  and  descend- 
ants of  the  Arab  ivory  and  slave  dealers, 
to  whom  a  certain  amount  of  Moslem 
civilization  and  handicraft  have  been 
handed  down ;  and  dotted  about  at  wide 
intervals,  the  neat,  well-ordered  stations 
of  the  Congo  government  gave  evidence 
of  a  European  civilization  that  has 
crushed  Mongwana  power  and  effectually 
abolished  the  slave  trade. 

The  climate  of  the  forest  seems  to  have 
no  detrimental  influence  on  the  physical 
development  of  any  of  the  tribes  who  find 
their  home  under  its  shelter.  The  Mong- 
wana are  a  tall,  well-proportioned  race  of 


A  JOURNEY  THROUGH  THE  CONGO  STATE        159 


A  FOREST  GIANT,  WITH  TENT  BETWEEN  TWO  EMBEDDED  ROOTS 


men,  and  many  of  the  women  seem  to 
have  inherited  a  certain  Arab  grace  of 
form.  The  Babila,  another  tribe  with 
which  I  came  in  contact,  although  short 
of  stature,  are  a  sturdy,  healthy-looking 
race,  while  the  pygmies  certainly  show 
no  signs  of  physical  degeneration.  But 
the  native  from  the  plain,  or  the  white 
man,  usually  suffers  severely  after  a  few 
months'  residence  in  the  damp  atmos- 
phere of  the  forest,  rheumatism,  dysen- 
tery, and  bilious  fevers  being  the  most 
common  complaints. 

The  soil  of  the  forest  is  so  rich  in  leaf 
mold  that  it  produces  two  to  three  crops 
a  year.  Like  the  natives,  the  villagers  are 
in  the  habit  of  continually  changing  their 
cultivation  from  one  spot  to  another, 
although  here  it  necessitates  a  great  deal 
of  labor.  The  underwood  and  saplings 
are  first  all  cut  down,  and  then  attention 
is  turned  to  the  smaller  trees,  which  are 
felled  some  8  feet  from  the  base,  and 
left  to  cumber  the  ground  where  they 
fall.  By  this  time  the  underwood  is  suf- 
ficiently dry  to  help  in  the  destruction  of 


the  larger  trees  that  are  alone  left  stand- 
ing. Piling  it  around  the  trunks,  the 
natives  set  it  alight  in  order  to  burn  the 
bark,  and  thus  kill  the  trees,  which 
eventually  stretch  out  their  gaunt  arms 
over  crops  of  banana,  millet,  rice,  maize, 
sweet  potatoes,  and  manioc. 

Grass  in  the  forest  can  only  be  found 
in  the  eddos,  and  in  the  clearings  made 
by  the  natives  for  their  gardens.  For 
this  reason  there  are  no  cows,  and  the 
few  imported  sheep  and  goats  that  man- 
age to  withstand  the  hardships  of  the 
march  through  the  forest  to  the  villages 
are  cherished  by  the  owners  as  their  most 
precious  possessions.  Among  the  little 
flock  that  followed  us  on  our  journey,  the 
death-rate  in  the  forest  was  over  50  per 
cent,  and  this  in  spite  of  every  care. 
Night  after  night,  a  platform  strewn 
with  leaves  was  built  for  them,  with  a 
roof  as  shelter,  and  during  the  march 
each  animal  had  a  nose-bag  with  a  few 
potatoes  in  the  bottom,  to  prevent  them 
getting  hungry  or  eating  poisonous  leaves 
from  the  undergrowth. 


6o 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


FLOATING  VILLAGE:  OF  KATANGA,  AS  SE:E:N  FROM  THE:  SHORE: 


On  the  site  of  an  abandoned  garden 
vegetation  rapidly  springs  up,  to  form 
a  favorite  haunt  of  elephant,  buffalo,  wild 
pig,  bush-buck,  bongo — an  animal  even 
rarer  in  the  Ituri  forest  than  the  okapi— 
and  leopards,  which  latter  are,  curiously 
enough,  never  to  be  found  far  from  a 
native  settlement.  In  coloration  the  ani- 
mals of  the  forest  have  a  tendency  to 
become  darker  in  shade  than  those  of  the 
plains.  A  notable  example  of  this  is  the 
ratel  (Mellivora  cottoni),  which  is  en- 
tirely black,  while  in  the  south  and  west 
of  Africa  the  whole  upper  surface  of  the 
body,  head,  and  tail  are  an  ashy  gray. 

Mica  abounds  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Mawambi,  and  the  whitewash  used  for 
the  houses  in  the  post  is  so  full  of  minute 
fragments  that  the  walls  sparkle  in  the 
sunshine. 

THE:  PYGMIES 

This  station  is  a  great  center  of  the 
pygmies.  They  live  in  small  communi- 
ties of  six  to  eighteen  men,  with  their 
wives  and  families.  Each  group  is  gov- 
erned by  an  elder,  but  there  does  not  ap- 
pear to  be  any  recognized  supreme  chief, 


and  the  communities  are  often  at  war 
with  one  another.  They  have  no  perma- 
nent villages ;  their  lo.w  primitive  huts, 
thatched  with  the  large  leaf  of  Sarcophry- 
riium  arnoldianum,  are  built  in  a  little 
clearing  in  the  forest,  and  are  moved, 
not  only  for  their  customary  biannual 
migration,  or  when  hunting  in  that  dis- 
trict is  becoming  difficult,  but  also  on  the 
death  of  any  member  of  the  group,  or 
also  when  they  have  killed  some  large 
animal.  It  is  easier,  in  the  latter  case, 
to  move  the  village  to  the  animal  than  it 
is  to  move  the  animal  to  the  village. 
Their  time  is  passed  in  hunting  and  col- 
lecting honey,  wild  fruits,  and  roots. 
While  they  kill  the  larger  animals,  even 
elephants  at  times,  with  a  short-shafted, 
broad-bladed  spear,  by  far  the  greater 
quantity  of  their  game  is  taken  by  driving 
it  into  nets. 

The  pygmy  is  a  most  expert  climber, 
and  no  matter  how  high  the  wild  bees 
may  have  their  nest,  he  will  scale  up  and 
cut  it  out  in  an  incredibly  short  space  of 
time.  Each  group  of  pygmies  attaches 
itself  to  the  chief  of  one  of  the  other  for- 
est tribes,  whom  they  supply  with  meat. 


A  JOURNEY  THROUGH  THE  CONGO  STATE        161 


THREE;  HUTS  OF  THE:  FLOATING  VILLAGE:,  KATANGA 


honey,  creepers  as  ropes,  and  leaves  for 
thatching  in  exchange  for  vegetable 
produce.  Tilling  the  ground  is  an  occu- 
pation regarded  with  scorn  by  the  true 
pygmy.  Bows  and  arrows  are  his 
weapons  of  war.  With  these  he  is  a 
skilled  marksman,  for  he  is  constantly 
practicing  on  monkeys  and  other  small 
beasts.  All  the  ironwork  used  by  a 
pygmy  is  traded  from  other  tribes.  Bark 
cloth  dyed  terra-cotta  or  a  soft  gray  is 
his  principal  manufacture,  but  he  also 
makes  wooden  honey-pots,  pipestems, 
bows  and  arrows,  together  with  personal 
ornaments  of  fur  and  feather,  and  sleep- 
ing mats  of  skin.  The  dances  of  the 
pygmies  are  the  most  interesting  of  any  I 
have  seen,  and  are  carried  on  with  great 
energy  and  enthusiasm  for  hours  at  a 
stretch.  Nearly  all  of  them  portray  some 


feature  of  a  hunt,  and  end  up  with  the 
feast  that  follows  its  success. 

A  FLOATING  ISLAND 

Katanga  was  the  most  southerly  point 
we  touched.  This  village  was  one  of  the 
most  curious  I  have  ever  visited.  The 
main  group  of  thirty  huts  was  built  on 
one  huge  floating  platform  some  little 
distance  out  on  the  waters  of  a  sheltered 
bay.  The  platform  rises  and  falls  with 
the  surface  of  the  lake,  being  moored  by 
poles  driven  into  the  mud.  The  villagers 
are  a  robust,  well-built  race,  in  spite  of 
constant  intermarriage,  for  the  men  never 
choose  their  wives  from  among  the 
women  of  the  plains.  They  subsist  by 
hippo  hunting  and  fishing,  carrying  on  a 
lucrative  trade  by  the  purchase  of  salt 
from  Katwi  to  exchange  for  sheep  at  the 
southern  end  of  the  lake. 


1 62          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


WALL  OF  BURNT  CLAY  SURROUNDING  A  VILLAGE   NEAR  TIMBUKTU,,  AFRICA 


NATIVES   NEAR  TIMBUKTU,   IN   THE  VALLEY   OF  THE   NIGER 


A  JOURNEY  THROUGH  THE  CONGO  STATE        163 


A  YOUNG  GIRL,  NEAR  TIMBUKTU 


A    NATIVE   HUT    SHOWING   BURNT    CLAY    WALL— SCENES    IN    FRENCH    TERRITORY    IN 

THE  VALLEY  OF  THE  NIGER 


164 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


GRANARY  IN  THE  VAI^EY  OF  THE)  NIGER 

For  this  and  the  preceding  four  illustrations  this  Magazine  is  indebted  to  "La  Societe  d' Etudes 

Coloniales  de  Belgique,"  Brussels. 


IN  THE  VALLEY  OF  THE  NIGER 

THE  French  during  recent  years 
have  been  sending  many  expedi- 
tions across  the  Sahara  Desert  and  have 
thoroughly  explored  Timbuktu,  formerly 
the  mysterious  city  of  Africa,  and 
all  the  country  round  about  it.  They 
have  found  there  queer  types  of  archi- 
tecture and  relics  of  a  civilization  which 
centuries  ago  was  very  great.  They  have 
also  discovered  in  caves  exceedingly 
ancient  human  relics,  showing  that  this 
part  of  the  world  was  inhabited  during 
the  Stone  Age  by  a  people  not  unlike  the 
prehistoric  Cliff-dwellers  of  this  country. 


But  perhaps  the  most  interesting  re- 
sult of  these  expeditions  is  the  apparent 
pro'of  that  the  Desert  of  Sahara  is  con- 
stantly growing  larger  by  pressing  south- 
ward. The  region  along  the  upper  Niger 
and  east  to  Lake  Tchad  is  becoming 
dryer  each  year,  with  the  result  that  the 
arid  belt  across  Africa  is  widening.  This 
gradual  desiccation  resembles  that  occur- 
ring in  central  Asia,  and  is  the  prin- 
cipal reason  for  the  degeneracy  of  the 
peoples  along  the  Niger.  The  NATIONAL 
GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE  has  in  prepara- 
tion a  large  map  of  Africa,  which  will 
be  sent  to  the  members  of  the  Society 
in  about  two  months. 


MAKING  BREAD 


MAKING   CASSAVA   BREAD,    SAINT   VINCENT,    WEST    INDIES 

Cassava  is  a  native  plant  of  tropical  America,  but  has  been  extensively  introduced  into 
Africa  and  other  tropical  countries.  It  grows  in  bush  form,  usually  six  or  eight  feet  high, 
and  its  roots,  which  grow  in  clusters,  vary  in  size  from  a  few  inches  to  three  feet  long,  and 
sometimes  weigh  as  much  as  twenty-five  pounds.  Cassava  roots  form  the  principal  food  of  the 
common  people  in  tropical  America.  It  is  generally  handled  commercially  in  the  form  of 
meal,  somewhat  resembling  oatmeal,  but  is  made  into  thin,  round  cakes  by  the  natives,  known 
as  cassava  bread.  The  meal  is  exported  from  some  parts  of  the  West  Indies  to  Europe,  where 
it  is  used  in  manufactories  as  starch,  and  is  also  formed  into  tapioca.  The  series  of  illustra- 
tions of  making  bread,  pages  165-179,  are  from  photographs  by  the  Keystone  View  Co.,  and 
are  copyrighted  by  them. 


i66 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


MAKING  TORTILLAS,  SALVADOR,  CENTRAL  AMERICA 

Tortillas  are  prepared  from  Indian  corn,  which  is  first  parboiled  to  make  it  clean  and 
soft.  The  meal  is  then  crushed  into  a  paste  with  a  stone  rolling  pin  on  a  small  stone  table, 
as  in  this  picture,  after  which  it  is  baked  on  a  plate  of  iron  or  earthenware,  but  not  enough 
to  brown  the  tortilla,  which  is  served  hot.  Copyrighted  by  the  Keystone  View  Co. 


SELLING  TORTILLAS,  MEXICO 


167 


TORTILLA  MARKET,  GUADALUPK,   MEXICO 

One  of  the  strange  customs  noticed  by  Americans  in  Mexico  is  that  the  natives  are  aim-  st 
constantly  eating  from  morning  until  night.  Wherever  a  train  stops  there  are  men,  women, 
and  children  selling  boiled  eggs,  fried  chicken,  and  many  dishes  distinctly  Mexican,  all  gen- 
erally seasoned  with  Chile  and  other  acrid  spices;  native  cakes  (tortillas),  perhaps  prepared 
and  cooked  at  the  train  side,  are  also  to  be  had,  and  there,  too,  may  always  be  found  the 
senorita  with  her  bottle  of  pulque.  At  the  market  a  large  portion  of  the  purchases  are  for 
immediate  consumption ;  hence,  as  shown  in  this  view,  women  arc  always  present  with  a 
handful  of  dough  and  portable  charcoal  stoves,  supplying  hot  tamales  and  tortillas.  This  view 
shows  the  tortilla-makers  as  they  appear  on  Sundays  and  feast  days  in  front  of  the  Cathedral 
Guadalupe.  Copyrighted  by  the  Keystone  View  Co. 


1 68          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


A  BREAD  "WALLAH,"  J^YPORE},  INDIA 

These  round,  flat  cakes  of  unleavened  bread  are  more  like  pancakes  than  any  other  article 
of  food  in  common  use  among  us.  The  cakes  are  called  chapatties.  The  cook  shapes  them 
between  his  hands  and  bakes  them  on  a  griddle  or  on  the  coals.  They  are  made  of  wheat 
flour,  and  are  a  common  article  of  diet  among  the  well-to-do  classes  in  central  and  northern 
India.  The  poorer  people  eat  cake  made  of  corn  meal,  millet,  and  a  coarse,  hard  grain  called 
raggy.  In  western  India  barley  cakes  are  eaten  to  some  extent.  In  the  south  boiled  rice  is 
made  into  cakes  known  as  hoppers,  which  is  the  Anglo-Indian  rendering  of  the  Tamil  appa. 
Copyrighted  by  the  Keystone  View  Co. 


A  JAPANESE  BAKERY 


i  69 


A  BAKERY  IN   JAPAN 

Old  Japan  had  no  bread  or  biscuits.  Rice,  beans,  fish,  eggs,  and  millet  were  and  are  the 
chief  articles  of  food.  The  Japanese  knowledge  of  bread  dates  from  their  acquaintance  with 
the  Portuguese,  who  first  entered  Japan  in  1542.  In  1890  there  was  a  rage  for  foreign  bread 
in  Tokyo,  even  among  Jinrikisha  men  and  coolies.  Piles  of  loaves  were  seen  at  every  little 
cook-stall;  but  the  fashion  subsided  like  a  fever  and  ordinary  Japanese  victuals  resumed  their 
wonted  place.  Biscuits  such  as  we  see  in  this  view  are  a  compromise  between  oriental  and 
occidental  cookery.  They  are  of  various  kinds,  made  of  rice  or  of  wheat  flour  and  baked  over 
a  charcoal  fire.  Copyrighted  by  the  Keystone  View  Co. 


i  jo          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


TWO  WOMEN  GRINDING  AT  THE)  MILL — PALESTINE) 

Wheat  is  sown,  reaped,  and  ground  in  Palestine  and  Syria  by  the  same  primitive  methods  used 
2,000  years  ago.     Copyrighted  by  the  Keystone  View  Co. 


MAKING  BREAD  IN  SYRIA 


BAKING   BREAD   IN    SYRIA 

The  hearth  is  simply  two  stones  raised  on  end,  over  which  an  iron  plate  is  laid,  on  which  the 
bread  is  baked.     Copyrighted  by  the  Keystone  View  Co. 


i  72          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


BREAD  OF  THE:  ORIENT,  EGYPT,  AND  TURKEY 

These  loaves  are  not  of  such  generous  size  as  the  reader  may  infer.  Notice  a  loaf  to  the 
right,  purposely  crushed  for  this  occasion.  The  material  is  first  rolled  out  or  pounded  flat 
like  pie  dough  and  two  layers  successfully  united  at  the  edges.  These  are  then  placed  in  a 
hot  oven,  where  they  puff  up  and  are  baked  in  a  remarkably  short  time.  Copyrighted  by  the 
Keystone  View  Co. 


A  CANADIAN  BAKERY 


173 


AN  OLD-FASHIONED  BAKERY  STILL 


USED  IN   SECTIONS  OF  CANADA 
STATES 


AND  THE   UNITED 


This  bakery  resembles  the  New  England  oven  of  two  generations  ago.  A  week's  supply 
of  bread  for  a  large  farm  household  can  be  baked  at  one  heating.  Copyrighted  by  the  Key- 
stone View  Co. 


174 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


MAKING  THE 


BREAD"  OF  THE  NORWEGIAN  PEASANT 


This  Norwegian  woman  is  baking  the  well-known  flat  bread  under  a  little  shelter  of 
dried  branches.  The  dough  for  this  bread  is  in  the  shallow  dish  in  front  and  to  the  left  of 
the  woman,  and  is  made  of  coarse  barley  meal  and  water.  After  being  rolled  thin,  it  is 
removed  to  the  round  flat  stone  in  the  foreground,  under  which  a  fire  of  faggots  is  kept 
burning.  Here  it  is  baked,  then  laid  on  the  pile  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  picture.  Copy- 
righted by  the  Keystone  View  Co. 


BREAD  IN  NORWAY 


'75 


MAKING  THE:    FLAT  ISRKAD    01-  TIIK  xomvKr.iAx   PEASANT 

This  barley  bread  is  stored  in  a  dry  place  for  the  winter,  when  it  forms  one  of  the  chief 
foods  of  the  peasants.  Though  made  in  the  most  primitive  fashion,  it  is  usually  clean  and 
palatable.  Copyrighted  by  the  Keystone  View  Co. 


Photo  from  Corby  Bros.,  Washington,   D.   C. 

THE    LABORATORY    OF    AN    AMERICAN    BAKERY,    WHERE    ALL    THE    INGREDIENTS    ARE 

CAREFULLY  TESTED 


MARKING    THE    ALASKAN 
BOUNDARY 

UNUSUAL  difficulties  are  being  met 
and  overcome  in  marking  the 
Alaskan  boundary  as  determined  by  the 
Boundary  Tribunal  at  London  in  1903. 
The  shortness  of  the  season  in  which  the 
work  can  be  done,  the  absence  of  all 
trails,  the  necessity  of  climbing  almost  in- 
accessible peaks,  and  the  severe  cold 
practically  all  the  time  have  made  the 
surveying  of  the  boundary  a  very  hard 
problem.  The  work  is,  however,  being 
pushed  vigorously  by  both  the  United 
States  and  Canadian  governments. 

The  illustrations  on  pages  180-189  will 
give  the  reader  an  excellent  idea  of  the 
region  in  which  the  work  is  being  done. 
These  illustrations  are  from  photographs 
by  Messrs  Radcliffe  Hordern  and  E.  R. 
Martin,  of  the  Alaskan  Boundary  Sur- 
vey, and  have  been  sent  to  this  Magazine 
through  the  courtesy  of  Hon.  O.  H.  Titt- 
mann,  Alaskan  Boundary  Commissioner 
for  the  United  States. 


Kate's  Needle,  whose  peculiar  profile 
is  shown  on  page  180,  is  about  10,000 
feet  high,  and  is  the  highest  mountain  in 
southeastern  Alaska  outside  of  the  Saint 
Elias  and  Mount  Fairweather  ranges. 
It  is  one  of  the  boundary  mountains  se- 
lected by  the  Tribunal  of  London. 
Whichever  of  the  pinnacles  projecting 
above  its  summit  ridge  is  chosen  as  the 
exact  turning  point  in  the  boundary  will 
be  a  grander  and  more  enduring  monu- 
ment than  any  which  can  be  built  by 
human  agency.  The  reader  will  note  the 
remarkable  profile  of  a  female  face  with 
a  striking  head-dress. 

The  mountain  is  the  source  of  great 
glaciers  lying  on  its  slopes,  and  from  one 
of  these  in  a  most  inaccessible  region 
this  photograph  was  taken  by  Mr  Rad- 
cliffe Hordern,  of  the  Alaskan  Boundary 
Survey.  The  mountain  is  8  miles  west  of 
the  Stikine  River  and  about  34  miles  from 
Point  Roberts  at  the  mouth  of  the  river. 

The  views  on  pages  181-189  were  all 
taken  by  Mr  Martin  in  the  vicinity  of 
Glacier  Bay,  Alaska. 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  BAKING 


177 


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THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  BAKING 


180          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


MARKING  THE  ALASKAN  BOUNDARY 


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MARKING  THE:  ALASKAN  BOUNDARY 

Some  of  the  difficulties  of  triangulation.  Climbing  an  almost  vertical  cliff  by  a  rope. 
This  cliff  is  almost  100  feet  high,  and  affords  the  only  means  to  reach  the  summit.  The  man 
on  the  rope  has  a  theodolite  on  his  back.  This  ascent  had  to  be  made  five  times  before  the 
necessary  observations  were  completed.  Photo  by  E.  R.  Martin,  Alaskan  Boundary  Survey. 


MARKING  THE  ALASKAN  BOUNDARY 


THE  SURFACE  OF  THE  "HUGH   MILLER"   GLACIER 
No  difficult}-  was  found  in  traveling  at  will  over  this  glacier 

TRIANGULATION    PARTY    RETURNING    FROM    A    TRIP    TO    A    STATION    NEAR    THE    MUIR 

GLACIER 

This  outfit  spent  fourteen  successive  hours  working  the  boat  through  the  floating  ice. 
In  eight  of  the  fourteen  hours  no  land  was  visible,  and  part  of  that  time  the  bow  of  the  boat 
was  almost  invisible  from  the  stern.  A  dense  fog  covered  everything,  and  the  boat  was 
navigated  by  a  pocket  compass.  Some  of  the  bergs  were  very  large,  and  the  fact  that  they 
break  up  and  roll  over  without  any  apparent  reason  and  without  any  warning,  made  this  trip 
extremely  dangerous.  Photos  by  E.  R.  Martin,  Alaskan  Boundary  Survey. 


184 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


VIEW    UP    QUEEN    INLET    TOWARD    THE    BOUNDARY    LINE THE       CARROLL       GLACH-U 

SHOWS  IN  THE  BACKGROUND 

The  field  of  floating  ice  in  front  of  the  Mnir  Glacier  and  small  bergs  left  on  the  beach 
by  falling  tides.  The  Muir  Glacier  formerly  faced  about  where  the  group  of  men  are  seen, 
and  had  solid  frontage  clear  across  the  inlet  about  ico  feet  high.  Now  it  is  back  several 
miles  and  slopes  gradually  down  to  the  water.  The  earthquake  of  1899  probably  caused  the 
ice  to  break  off  more  rapidly  than  it  usually  did.  Its  former  great  beauty  is  now  lost.  Photos 
by  E.  R.  Martin,  Alaskan  Boundary  Survey. 


MARKING  THE  ALASKAN  BOUNDARY 


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1 86          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


SILK   SLEEPING   TENT,    WEIGHT   ABOUT   8   POUNDS,    Q    X    IO,    SHOWING    COTS   AND 

SLEEPING  BAGS 


A  TRIANGULATION   PARTY   EATING  LUNCH   ON   A    MOUNTAIN   TOP 

Not  much  style,  but  plenty  of  tea  and  substantiate.     Photos  by  E.  R.  Martin,  Alaskan  Bound- 
ary Survey 


MARKING  THE  ALASKAN  BOUNDARY 


AN   OBSERVING  PARTY  RETURNING  TO  CAMP  FROM   A  TRIANGULATION   STATION    <>\    A 
SNOW  FIELD  WHICH  IS  A  LITTLE  SOFT  FROM  THE  ACTION  OF  THE  SUN 


CAMP  DIVERSION 


The  chief  of  parties  feeding  the  pet  of  the  outfit.     A  triangulation  station  signal  and  cairn, 
with  the  cook  tent  in  the  background.    Photos  by  E.  R.  Martin,  Alaskan  Boundary  Survey 


i  88          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


m 


SUNSET  VIEWS  IN  JULY 

These  views   were  taken  between  9.30  and    10.30   P.  M.     Photos   by   E.   R.    Martin,   Alaskan 

Boundary   Survey 


MARKING  THE  ALASKAN  BOUNDARY 


189 


o      2_ 

'-   I 


A   DROWNED   EMPIRE 

BY  ROBERT  H.  CHAPMAN 


THE  swamp  issue  has  recently 
appeared  upon  the  legislative 
horizon  as  a  new  and  rather  at- 
tractive proposition.  Until  very  recently, 
federal  reclamation  of  American  mo- 
rasses had  not  been  considered  seriously. 
The  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 
last  year  published  a  general  resume  of 
the  drainage  question  by  Mr  H.  M. 
Wilson;*  but  since  then  the  subject  has 
taken  shape  with  great  rapidity,  until 
now  it  looks  as  though  we  might  have 
within  the  very  near  future  a  second 
reclamation  act,  this  time  for  the  purpose 
of  removing  the  excess  water  from, 
rather  than  supplying  it  to,  agricultural 
lands. 

In  response  to  a  Senate  resolution,  Sec- 
retary Garfield  has  recently  transmitted 
to  Congress  an  instructive  reportt  on  the 
work  which  the  bureaus  of  his  depart- 
ment have  already  done  in  connection 
with  swamp  and  drainage  matters.  While 
the  country  generally  has  supposed  that 
drainage,  so  far  as  it  is  related  to  the 
work  of  the  federal  government,  is  a  new 
question,  and  that  any  information  that 
Congress  might  want  with  respect  to 
swamp  lands  would  be  forthcoming  only 
after  much  investigation,  it  seems  these 
bureaus  have  not  only  been  for  years 
making  detailed  surveys  and  studies  of 
swamp  lands  of  the  United  States,  but  the 
Department  of  the  Interior  has  in  several 
cases  entered  into  actual  drainage  con- 
struction of  large  tracts  in  connection 
with  irrigation  projects. 

Over  twenty  years  ago  the  Geolog- 
ical Survey  started  a  special  investigation 
of  the  swamp  areas  of  the  country  in  the 
work  of  the  late  Professor  Nathaniel  S. 
Shaler,  and  his  estimate  of  approximately 
78,000,000  acres  of  wet  lands  east  of  the 
looth  meridian  stands  today  as  accurate, 

*  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE  for  May, 
1907. 
t  Senate  Document  No.  151. 


probably,  as  any  figures  yet  produced. 
The  fact,  as  stated  in  Mr  Garfield's  re- 
port, that  between  seven  and  eight  mil- 
lion acres  of  swamps  have  been  inciden- 
tally surveyed  by  the  Geological  Survey 
in  connection  with  the  general  topo- 
graphic survey  of  the  United  States  di- 
rects attention  to  the  great  value  of  this 
class  of  work.  One-third  of  the  area  of 
the  country  has  already  been  covered 
topographically,  and  in  this  area  where 
swamps  occur  these  maps,  taken  in  con- 
nection with  the  hydrographic  and  geo- 
logic investigations  of  the  Survey,  afford 
all  the  preliminary  information  required 
for  determining  the  feasibility  of  drain- 
age projects  and  for  planning  the  broad 
features  of  construction. 

The  reason  that  greater  swamp  areas 
have  not  been  mapped  is  indicated  by 
the  fact  that  since  the  primary  purpose 
of  the  topographic  work  of  the  Survey  is 
to  secure  a  base  for  the  geologic  map  of 
the  United  States,  the  specific  localities 
chosen  for  topographic  surveys  have 
naturally  been  those  of  greatest  geolog- 
ical and  mineral  importance  and  have  not 
included  any  great  swampy  regions. 

Several  special  drainage  surveys,  how- 
ever, are  described,  as,  for  instance,  the 
work  in  the  Sacramento  Valley  of  Cali- 
fornia, where  a  cooperative  survey  is 
being  conducted  by  the  state  and  the  gov- 
ernment, the  Geological  Survey  doing  the 
work.  In  this  case  special  maps,  designed 
for  reclamation  purposes,  are  being  made 
of  the  million  acres  of  rich  tule  swamps, 
about  two-thirds  of  the  work  having  been 
completed.  In  this  valley  is  located  the 
greatest  combined  drainage  and  irriga- 
tion project  in  the  United  States,  com- 
prising a  million  acres  of  swamp  and  two 
million  acres  of  reclaimable  arid  lands. 

A  special  drainage  survey  is  also  being 
made  in  the  upper  Yazoo  delta,  Missis- 
sippi, under  cooperative  arrangement  be- 
tween the  Geological  Survey  and  the 


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191 


192 


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A  DROWNED  EMPIRE 


•93 


194 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


ROAD-MAKING  ACROSS   NEWLY  RECLAIMED  TRACT  OF   SWAMP  LAND  IN   SACRAMENTO 

VALLEY 


State  of  Mississippi.  It  is  probable  that 
construction  work  in  this  area  will  be  un- 
dertaken by  the  formation  of  a  drainage 
district,  the  fund  necessary  for  this  pur- 
pose to  be  raised  by  assessment  of  the 
land  improved. 

IMPORTANT    PROJECT    IN    MINNESOTA       . 

In  northern  Minnesota  a  very  interest- 
ing problem  is  presented.  Here  the 
United  States  owns  about  2,500,000  acres 
of  land  which  the  Chippewa  Indians  have 
ceded  to  the  government,  to  be  held  in 
trust  and  disposed  of  for  their  own  bene- 
fit. Without  some  improvement  of  the 
lands,  however,  there  is  little  likelihood 
of  the  Indians  realizing  much  of  any- 
thing from  them,  since  they  constitute  a 
vast  swamp,  with  only  here  and  there 
small  patches  of  arable  land.  The  set- 
tlers on  these  isolated  tracts  are  as  com- 
pletely marooned  during  long  periods  as 
though  located  upon  islets  in  the  ocean. 


So  Congress  has  authorized  the  survey 
of  these  lands  with  a  view  to  determining 
the  feasibility  of  their  reclamation  by 
drainage,  and  the  Geological  Survey  has 
completed  the  major  portion  of  the  work 
and  has  even  drawn  detailed  plans  for  the 
reclamation,  by  draining,  of  one  portion 
of  the  swamp,  known  as  the  Mud  Lake 
district.  An  amendment  to  the  Indian  ap- 
propriation bill  has  been  proposed  by 
Representative  Steenerson  of  Minnesota 
allotting  $1,000,000  for  the  drainage  of 
this  district,  to  be  expended  under  the 
direction  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior. 
Mr  Garfield  also  directs  attention  to  the 
very  considerable  drainage  work  that  is 
being  done  by  the  Reclamation  Service  in 
connection  with  its  irrigation  problems  in 
the  West.  In  one  instance,  in  the  Kla- 
math,  Oregon-California,  project,  some 
50,000  acres  of  swamp  land  will  be  re- 
claimed by  drainage,  and  under  an  exten- 
sion of  this  great  project  there  will  be  at 


A  DROWNED  EMPIRE 


'95 


TYPE  OF  CONVEYOR  DREDGE  USED  IN  CHANNEL-DEEPENING 


least  an  additional  100,000  acres  drained. 
The  Secretary  points  out  with  commend- 
able pride  that  in  the  event  that  Congress 
should  require  additional  surveys  or 
drainage  construction  work  performed, 
his  department  has  already  two  fully 
equipped  bureaus,  the  Geological  Survey 
and  the  Reclamation  Service,  ready  at  any 
day  to  extend  the  drainage  work  they 
are  in  reality  already  doing,  and  at  the 
same  time  he  calls  attention  to  the  fact 
that,  considered  in  its  entirety,  the  drain- 
age problem  is  not  as  simple  a  one  as 
many  suppose.  It  involves  the  handling 
of  one  of  the  most  powerful  forces  with 
which  man  has  to  cope  and  is  a  matter  of 
the  broadest  practical  engineering. 

The  various  phases  of  the  problem  may 
be  classified  as  follows: 

1.  Farm  drainage. 

2.  Drainage  and  flood  control. 

3.  Drainage,  flood  control,  and  naviga- 
tion. 

4.  Tidal-flat  drainage. 

The  first  is  the  simplest  form  of  the 


problem — the  draining  of  a  farm  or 
group  of  farms  into  the  nearest  natural 
run-off  channel. 

The  second  and  third  are  closely  re- 
lated and  more  complex,  especially  in  the 
determination  of  engineering  measures 
whereby  disastrous  floods  may  be  pre- 
vented and  the  water  uniformly  distrib- 
uted over  low-water  seasons,  so  that 
navigable  stages  in  the  rivers  may  be 
maintained. 

The  fourth  comprises  such  lands  as 
may  require  protection  from  both  streams 
and  the  sea. 

The  preliminary  engineering  require- 
ments in  every  case  are  in  nowise  dif- 
ferent from  those  governing  the  irriga- 
tion of  arid  lands,  the  construction  of 
inland  waterways,  the  prevention  of 
floods,  the  conservation  of  water,  or  any 
other  important  water-supply  develop- 
ment. Such  problems  all  involve  engi- 
neering and  physical  factors  the  control 
of  which  may  extend  beyond  the  area 
immediatelv  under  consideration.  There- 


196 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


RECLAIMED   SHIOCTON   SWAMP,    WISCONSIN A   CROP   SAID  TO   BE   2O  TONS   PER   ACRE 


fore  any  great  project  of  wet  land  rec- 
lamation is  far  above  the  plane  of  mere 
local  ditching.  If  such  work  is  to  be 
prosecuted  intelligently  and  purposefully, 
the  actual  construction  must  be  preceded 
by  topographic  surveys,  measurement  of 
stream  flow,  consideration  of.  necessary 
capacity  of  channels,  and  other  physical 
studies.  The  actual  development  itself 
can  be  carried  out  only  by  a  corps  of  com- 
petent engineers.  In  this  connection  Mr 
Garfield  points  out  the  danger  of  ex- 
tensive drainage  undertakings  without  a 
full  consideration  of  all  the  factors. 
Swamps  are  in  a  way  natural  storage 
reservoirs,  and  they  give  off  their  waters 
slowly,  and  if  large  areas  are  drained  it 
means  that  there  will  result  a  quicker 
run-off  from  the  drainage  basin,  and  the 
question  must  be  considered  whether  the 
channel  capacity  of  the  natural  arteries 
is  sufficient  to  carry  the  increased  flow, 
else  the  improvement  of  one  reach  of  a 
basin  may  result  in  the  overflow  and  de- 
struction of  another  reach  lower  down. 


The  gauging  of  the  streams  in  an  area 
considered  for  draining  and  the  determi- 
nation of  their  maximum  carrying  capac- 
ity is  therefore  an  essential  part  of  the 
preliminary  investigation.  The  value  of 
figures  of  stream  flow  are  much  greater 
when  they  have  been  continued  over  long 
periods,  and  the  work  and  records  of 
the  Water  Resources  Branch  of  the 
Geological  Survey,  which  cover  many 
years  past,  are  invaluable. 

One  of  the  preeminent  factors  is  the 
determination  of  the  value  of  the  re- 
claimed land.  The  crop  it  will  best  raise 
will  give  actual  figures  upon  which  to 
base  estimates,  and  the  careful  attention 
which  the  experts  of  the  Department  of 
Agriculture  are  giving  to  soil  surveys  has 
a  most  valuable  application  to  the  subject. 

An  item  for  primary  consideration  is 
the  maintenance  and  extension  of  the 
navigable  waterways,  which  are  directly 
under  the  control  of  the  engineers  of  the 
U.  S.  Army. 

The   amount   of   work   to   be   done   is 


A  DROWNED  EMPIRE 


197 


L 


DIFFICULTIES  ENCOUNTERED  IN  SURVEY  OF  SACRAMENTO  VALLEY  (u.  S.  GEOLOGICAL 

SURVEY  PARTY) 


ufficient  to  keep  the  several  branches  of 
the   government   each   hard  at  work  on 


the  Senate  in  the  near  future.     What  its 
fate  will  be  in  the  House  remains  to  be 


the  particular  problem  it  is  best  fitted  to     seen.     It  is  believed  that  the  majority  of 


do,  and  calls   for  the  most  earnest  and 
hearty  cooperation  of  all. 

PUBLIC    DEMAND    FOR    NATIONAL  DRAINAGE 

The  apparent  popularity  of  the  national 
drainage  issue  is  evidenced  by  the  large 
number  of  bills  that  have  been  introduced 
in  Congress  at  this  session,  while  very 
substantial  progress  has  been  made  in  the 
way  of  proposed  legislation.  The  Senate 


the  members  of  that  busy  body  favor 
national  drainage  enactment,  but  it  is  a 
question  whether  the  bill  will  be  allowed 
to  come  to  a  vote. 

The  provisions  of  the  bill  are  in  the 
main  as  follows : 

The  proceeds  from  the  sale  of  public 
lands  in  the  non-arid  public-land  states 
(those  not  contributing  to  the  national 
irrigation  fund)  are  appropriated  as  a 


Committee  on  Public  Lands  has  consid-  "drainage"    fund,    dating   back   to   June 

ered  and  digested  the  various  bills  and  30,    1901.  in  order  to  give  drainage  an 

has  unanimously  reported  to  the  Senate,  even  start  with  irrigation.     The  work  of 

with  favorable  recommendations,  a  com-  drainage  reclamation  is  to  be  carried  out 

prehensive  measure.     It  is  predicted  by  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  who  is 

the  author  of  the  bill,  Senator  Flint,  of  given   wide   discretion   in   the   premises; 

California,  that  it  will  undoubtedly  pass  among  other  features,  he  is  empowered  to 


ig8          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


- *» 


MINNESOTA  SWAMP  SURVEY    (u.   S.   GKOLOGICAL  SURVEY   PARTY   EN   ROUTE) 
HAND-DITCHING  BY  CONTRACT  LABOR,    HOLBECK^S   SWAMP,   NEAR   CHARLESTON,   S.    C. 


A  DROWNED  EMPIRE 


99 


subdivide  the  reclaimed  tracts  into 
farm  units  of  from  5  to  1 60  acres. 
It  is  now  recognized  that  the  mini- 
mum unit  of  40  acres,  under  the 
irrigation  act,  is,  under  certain 
conditions  of  great  fertility  and 
productivity  of  soil,  far  in  excess 
of  what  constitutes  an  adequate 
area  for  a  farm  home,  where  a 
man  may  make  a  comfortable  liv- 
ing for  himself  and  family.  The 
cost  of  the  drainage  construction  is 
to  be  charged  against  the  land  re- 
claimed, as  under  the  irrigation 
act,  and  is  to  be  repaid  into  the 
drainage  fund  in  not  to  exceed  ten 
annual  installments.  To  secure 
this  repayment  the  government  is 
to  have  a  first  and  paramount  lien 
on  the  land.  Where  other  than 
public  lands  are  reclaimed  the  loan 
of  the  money  from  the  drainage 
fund  is  to  be  upon  the  bonds  of 
the  state,  the  municipality,  or 
drainage  district  and  secured  by 
lien  on  the  lands.  There  is  to  be 
no  commutation  of  homesteads  in 
case  of  the  reclamation  of  public 
lands. 

The  bill  is  thus  seen  to  closely 
follow  the  general  principles  un- 
derlying the  irrigation  act — the 
money  is  obtained  from  the  sale  of 
government  lands,  so  that  the  ap- 
propriation is  automatic ;  the  fund, 
through  the  return  to  it  of  the  cost 
of  construction  by  the  land-own- 
ers, becomes  a  revolving  one,  and 
most  of  the  details  of  execution 
are  left  to  the  Secretary  of  the  In- 
terior. 

Under  this  measure  national  drainage 
would  begin  existence  with  not  less  than 
six  million  dollars,  the  receipts  from  the 
sales  of  lands  in  the  states  included  under 
it  having  been  from  1901  to  June  30 
T907,  $5,813,258.  Since  the  Secretary 
of  the  Interior  is  not  restricted  in  making 
requirements  for  the  repayment  of  the 
cost  of  construction,  it  is  probable  that  in 
such  cheap  reclamation  work  as  is  esti- 
mated for  in  the  Mud  Lake  district, 
where  the  cost  will  be  less  than  $3  per 
acre,  he  will  provide  for  the  repayment 
to  the  fund  in  a  shorter  period  than  the 


TOPOGRAPHER  AT  WORK  IN  TULE  SWAMP  OF  SACRA- 
MENTO VALLEY,   CALIFORNIA 


maximum  10  years.  In  this  event  the 
money  would  be  available  for  a  second 
use  in  possibly  five  years  from  the  com- 
pletion of  the  project  and  settlement  ol 
the  land. 

To  save  a  person  from  drowning  calls 
for  more  or  less  heroism  in  every  case. 
To  win  from  the  realm  of  the  powerfu) 
Water  King  a  flooded  and  perishing  em- 
pire as  large  as  that  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland,  and  so  furnish  homes  for  men, 
women,  and  children,  requires  careful 
study,  intelligent  direction,  and  unceasing 
labor. 


HAITI:    A   DEGENERATING   ISLAND 


The  Story  of  its  Past  Grandeur  and  Present  Decay 
BY  REAR  ADMIRAL  COLBY  M.  CHESTER,  U.  S.  NAVY 


GEOGRAPHICALLY,  the  Island 
of  Haiti,  including  within  its 
limits  the  two  republics  of 
Santo  Domingo  and  Haiti,  is  in  the  class 
of  the  most  favored  of  nations.  Situated 
on  the  Western  Continent  about  midway 
between  its  two  grand  divisions  of  North 
and  South  America  and  abounding  in 
natural  resources,  it  might  be  an  em- 
porium for  each,  if  its  inhabitants  were 
of  as  high  an  order  as  the  country  itself. 

The  general  sailing  directions  for  ships 
bound  from  New  York  to  almost  any  part 
of  the  Greater  Antilles,  or  to  the  north 
coast  of  South  America,  require  a  course 
to  be  steered  due  south  on  the  seventy- 
fourth  meridian  of  longitude,  which 
passes  Watlings  Island,  the  San  Sal- 
vador of  Columbus,  close  aboard,  and 
leads  into  the  Caribbean  Sea  between 
the  islands  of  Cuba  and  Haiti ;  thence 
a  slight  change  of  course  to  the  westward 
takes  the  ship  to  the  future  entrance  of 
the  Pacific  Ocean — the  Panama  Canal. 
Thus,  ships  from  our  own  metropolis 
visiting  the  neighboring  ports,  in  which 
we  are  most  interested,  will  pass  close 
to  the  "Gem  of  the  Antilles." 

The  name  Haiti,  or  "High  Island," 
is  significant  of  the  character  of  its  topog- 
raphy. "Sire,"  once  said  a  British  ad- 
miral to  his  king,  George  the  Third, 
when  asked  about  the  island,  "Haiti  looks 
like  that,"  and  he  crumpled  up  a  piece 
of  paper  and  placed  it  upon  the  table. 
A  brief  description  though  this  may  be, 
it  well  fitted  the  case.  The  island  is  about 
400  miles  long,  150  miles  wide,  and  is 
about  the  size  of  the  State  of  New  York. 
It  is  irregular  in  shape  and  is  intersected 
by  three  chains  of  mountains. 

Haiti  has  a  climate  peculiar  to  itself. 
While  it  is  dominated  by  the  usual  hot 


and  dry  seasons  of  the  tropics,  some  of 
its  high  peaks,  which  extend  nearly  up 
into  the  snow  limits  of  the  atmosphere, 
seem  to  draw  from  the  trade  winds 
which  sweep  across  their  summits  the 
moisture,  which  is  precipitated  almost 
daily  for  a  short  time,  and  thus  the  dry 
season  is  robbed  of  its  drought-affect- 
ing proclivities. 

THE  ORIGINAL  SKAT  OF  PARADISE 

Only  one  opinion  seems  to  exist  in 
the  minds  of  historians  concerning  the 
general  salubrity  of  the  climate,  the 
productiveness  of  the  soil,  and  the 
beauty  of  the  scenery  of  this  remark- 
able island.  "In  the  delightful  vales," 
says  Raynal,  "all  the  sweets  of  spring 
are  enjoyed  without  winter  or  summer. 
There  are  but  two  seasons  of  the  year 
and  they  are  equally  fine.  The  ground, 
always  laden  with  fruit  and  covered 
with  flowers,  realizes  the  delights  and 
riches  of  poetical  description.  Wher- 
ever we  turn  our  eyes  we  are  enchanted 
with  a  variety  of  objects  colored  and  re- 
flected by  the  clearest  light.  The  air  is 
temperate  in  the  daytime  and  the  nights 
are  constantly  cool."  Naturally  this  ac- 
count refers  particularly  to  places  on 
the  island  where  foreigners  are  wont  to 
congregate,  but  it  also  accords  well 
with  my  own  experience  there. 

The  memory  of  a  night  spent  in  the 
hills  above  Port-au-Prince,  where  this 
description  strictly  applies,  is  fre- 
quently in  my  mind.  Here,  after  a  night 
of  rest,  the  new  day  began  with  a  swim 
in  a  beautiful  pool  of  mountain  water 
which  ran  through  the  lower  part  of 
our  host's  house  ;  and  this,  accompanied 
by  gentle  breezes  wafting  sweet  odors 
and  mingling  with  the  song  of  birds, 


*An  address  to  the  National  Geographic  Society. 


HAITI:    A  DEGENERATING  ISLAND 


201 


made  the  place  enchanting.  As  I  gazed 
upon  the  beauty  of  the  picture  pre- 
sented to  me,  I  could  well  understand 
Columbus'  enthusiasm  and  boast  that 
he  had  discovered  the  original  seat  of 
Paradise. 

Historically,  Haiti,  or  Santo  Domingo, 
is  the  senior  of  our  own  country,  if  we 
leave  out  of  consideration  the  legend- 
ary reports  concerning  the  visits  of  the 
Norsemen  to  our  northern  coasts  800 
years  ago,  and  we  are  somewhat  in- 
debted to  this  beautiful  island  for  our 
own  development. 

It  appears  providential  that  Colum- 
bus should  have  been  led  to  this  Eldo- 
rado of  his  day  to  make  his  first  settle- 
ment, when  so  many  other  localities 
seemed  to  be  the  pole  to  which  his  com- 
pass pointed,  for  here  he  met  a  less 
warlike  people  than  he  would  have 
found  in  the  north,  and  the  latter  might 
have  blotted  out  of  existence  the  spark 
of  exploration  which  was  started  by 
this  first  expedition  to  the  New  World. 
We  know  that  the  dread  of  cold 
weather  was  primarily  responsible  for 
his  abrupt  change  of  course  to  the 
southward,  although  the  glittering 
prospect  of  gold  which  the  aborigines 
led  him  to  believe  might  exist  in  the 
larger  islands  to  the  southward  had  its 
marked  influence  on  his  selection  of  a 
route  to  follow.  But  Columbus'  own 
brief  account  of  his  voyage,  as  given  in 
his  letter  to  his  friend  and  patron,  Luis 
de  vSantangel,  dated  February  15,  1493, 
explains  so  well  his  reasons  for  his 
abrupt  change  of  course  from  the  west 
to  the  eastward  again,  and  also  gives 
such  a  fine  description  of  the  land  he 
found,  that  I  shall  quote  a  portion  of  it 
here : 

COLUMBUS'  SPANISH  LETTER  TO  LUIS  DE 
SANTANGEL 

"Sm:  As  I  know  you  will  have  pleas- 
ure of  the  great  victory  which  our  Lord 
hath  given  me  in  my  voyage,  I  write  you 
this,  by  which  you  shall  know  that  in 
thirty-three  days  I  passed  over  to  the 
Indies  with  the  fleet  which  the  most  illus- 


trious King  and  Queen,  our  Lords,  gave 
me,  where  I  found  very  many  islands 
peopled  with  inhabitants  without  num- 
ber. And,  on  them  all,  I  have  taken  pos- 
session for  their  Highnesses,  with  procla- 
mation and  the  royal  standard  displayed ; 
and  I  was  not  gainsaid.  On  the  first 
which  I  found  I  put  the  name  of  Saint 
Salvador,  in  commemoration  of  His  High 
Majesty  who  marvelously  hath  given  all 
this ;  the  Indians  call  it  Guanahani.  The 
second  I  named  the  Island  of  Santa  Maria 
de  Conception,  the  third  Ferrandina,  the 
fourth  Isabela,  the  fifth  Isla  Juana;  and 
so  for  each  one  a  new  name.  When  I 
reached  Juana  (Cuba)  I  followed  its 
coast  westwardly  and  found  it  so  large 
that  I  thought  it  might  be  the  mainland 
province  of  Cathay.  ...  At  the  end 
of  many  leagues,  seeing  that  there  was  no 
change,  and  that  the  coast  was  bearing  me 
northwards,  whereunto  my  desire  was 
contrary,  since  the  winter  was  also  con- 
fronting' us,  I  formed  the  purpose  of 
making  from  thence  to  the  south,  and  as 
the  wind  was  also  against  mer  I  deter- 
mined not  to  wait  for  other  weather  and 
turned  back  as  far  as  a  port  agreed  upon 
(probably  Gibara).  .  .  . 

"I  understood  sufficiently  from  other 
Indians  whom  I  had  already  taken  that 
this  land,  in  its  continuousness  was  an 
island ;  .  .  .  from  its  headland  I  saw 
another  island  to  the  east  eighteen  leagues 
distant  from  this,  to  which  I  at  once  gave 
the  name  La  Spafiola.  And  I  proceeded 
thither  and  followed  the  north  coast,  as 
with  La  Juana,  eastwardly  for  a  hundred 
and  seventy-eight  great  leagues  in  a 
direct  easterly  course,  as  with  La  Juana. 
The  which,  and  all  the  others,  are  most 
strong  to  an  excessive  degree  and  this 
extremely  so." 

HAITI  AS  COLUMBUS  SAW  IT 

The  route  as  described  by  Columbus 
seems  then  to  have  led  him  away  from 
the  western  course,  and  he  thus  stumbles 
almost  on  the  finest  island  of  the  group 
into  which  he  had  entered.  His  letter, 
continuing,  tells  of  his  first  impression  of 
the  beautiful  island ;  and  as  he  found  it, 


202          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


so  may  we  see  it  today,  if  we  shut  out 
the  black  picture  which  is  the  product  of 
his  countrymen's  avarice. 

"In  it"    (Haiti),   he   says,   "there   are 
many  havens  on  the  seacoast,  incompar- 
able with  any  others  I  know  in  Christen- 
dom, and  plenty  of  rivers  so  good  and 
great  that  it  is  a  marvel.    The  lands  there 
are  high,  and  in  it  are  very  many  ranges 
of  hills  and  most  lofty  mountains  incom- 
parably beyond  the  Island  of  Centrefrei 
(or  Teneriffe)  ;  all  most  beautiful  in  a 
thousand  shapes  and  all  accessible,  and 
full  of  trees  of  a  thousand  kinds,  so  lofty 
that  they  seem  to  reach  the  sky.     And  I 
am   assured   that   they   never   lose   their 
foliage,  as  may  be  imagined,  since  I  saw 
them  as  green  and  as  beautiful  as  they 
are  in  Spain  in  May  and  some  of  them 
were  in  flower,   some  in  fruit,  some  in 
another  stage,   according  to  their  kind. 
And   the   nightingale   was   singing,    and 
other  birds  of  a  thousand  sorts,  in  the 
month   of   November,   round    about  the 
way  I  was  going.     There  are  palm  trees 
of  six  or  eight  species,  wondrous  to  see 
for  their  beautiful  variety ;  but  so  are  the 
other  trees  and  fruits  and  plants  therein. 
There   are   wonderful   pine   groves   and 
very  large  plains  of  verdure,  and  there  is 
honey  and  many  kinds  of  birds,  and  many 
mines  in  the  earth ;  and  there  is  a  popula- 
tion  of  incalculable   number.     Espanola 
is  a  marvel ;  the  mountains  and  hills,  and 
plains,  and  fields,  and  the  soil,  so  beauti- 
ful and  rich  for  planting  and  sowing,  for 
breeding  cattle  of  all  sorts,  for  building 
of  towns  and  villages.     There  could  be 
no  believing,   without  seeing,   such  har- 
bors as  are  here,  as  well  as  the  many  and 
great  rivers  and  excellent  waters,  most  of 
which   contain   gold.      In   the   trees   and 
fruits  and  plants,  there  are  greater  diver- 
sities from  those  of  Juana   (Cuba).     In 
this  there  are  many  spiceries  and  great 
mines   of  gold   and  other  metals.     The 
people  of  this  island  and  all  others  that 
I  have  seen,  or  not  seen,  all  go  naked, 
men  and  women,  just  as  their  mothers 
bring  them  forth."     .     .     . 


THE:  LAUGHING  NATIVES  LONG  SINCE) 
EXTERMINATED 

The  tribute  which  Columbus  pays  to 
the  natives  in  continuing  his  narrative 
would  satisfy  even  Bellamy's  ideals  as  ex- 
pressed in  his  "Looking  Backward."  I 
should  like  to  quote  all  of  his  letter  for 
the  benefit  of  those  who  have  not  been 
so  fortunate  as  to  read  it,  but  space  does 
not  permit.  A  paragraph  or  two  will 
give  the  gist  of  his  ideas. 

"It  seems  to  me,"  he  says,  "that  in  all 
those  islands  the  men  are  content  with  a 
single  wife.  .  .  .  Nor  have  I  been 
able  to  learn  whether  they  hold  personal 
property,  for  it  seemed  to  me  that  what- 
ever one  had,  they  all  took  share  of,  espe- 
cially of  eatable  things.  ...  I  have 
not  found  any  monstrous  men,  but,  on 
the  contrary,  all  the  people  are  very 
comely ;  nor  are  they  black  like  those  in 
Guinea,  but  have  flowing  hair;  and  they 
are  not  begotten  where  there  is  an  ex- 
cessive violence  of  the  sun.  Of  anything 
they  have,  if  it  be  asked,  they  never  say 
no,  but  do  rather  invite  the  person  to 
accept  it,  and  show  as  much  lovingness  as 
though  they  would  give  their  hearts. 
And  they  know  no  sect  or  idolatry,  save 
that  they  all  believe  that  power  and  good- 
ness are  in  the  sky,  and  they  believe  very 
firmly  that  these  ships  and  crews  come 
from  the  sky ;  and  this  comes  not  because 
they  are  ignorant;  on  the  contrary,  they 
are  men  of  very  subtle  wit,  who  navigate 
all  these  seas  and  who  give  a  marvelously 
good  account  of  everything." 

We  do  not  wonder  when  reading  his 
full  description  that  he  called  this  spot 
the  Garden  of  Eden.  Would  that  we 
could  look  on  the  inhabitants  of  this  beau- 
tiful island  now  as  Columbus  depicted  it ; 
but,  alas !  since  his  time  a  sad  change  has 
gradually  crept  over  the  island,  so  that 
now  foreigners  shun  it  as  they  do  a  pesti- 
lence. 

In  reading  the  history  of  its  people 
since  the  extinction  of  the  aborigines  our 
hearts  sicken  and  we  are  appalled  by  the 
revelations  there  disclosed. 

Its  pages  are  black  with  the  marks  of 


HAITI:    A  DEGENERATING  ISLAND 


203 


blood  shed  and  crime  committed,  not 
alone  by  the  ignorant  and  superstitious, 
but  more  especially  by  those  of  intelli- 
gence and  education,  and  even  our  own 
race  is  not  altogether  blameless  or  want- 
ing in  responsibility  for  this  condition  of 
things. 

On  Saint  Nicholas  Day  (December  6), 
1492,  Columbus  entered  a  port  at  the  ex- 
treme west  end  of  the  Island  of  Santo 
Domingo  or,  as  the  whole  island  was 
then  called  by  the  aborigines,  Haiti.  The 
natives  themselves  called  the  port  Bohio, 
but  Columbus  christened  it,  in  honor  of 
the  day  he  was  celebrating,  Port  Saint 
Nicholas,  the  name  still  existing  as  Saint 
Nicholas  Mole.  This  date  will  ever  be 
memorable  in  the  annals  of  the  Haitiens 
as  marking  the  beginning  of  the  history 
of  the  island. 

Columbus  now  called  the  island  His- 
paniola  in  honor  of  the  country  which 
had  sent  him  forth  to  discover  it,  and  it 
is  to  be  regretted  that  this  name  given  by 
the  immortal  discoverer  has  been  lost, 
for  its  present  two  names  are  conflicting 
and  confusing. 

The  small  squadron  which  formed 
Columbus'  expedition  to  the  New  World 
had  come  the  whole  distance  across  the 
ocean  intact,  but  off  the  coast  of  Cuba 
the  captain  of  the  ship  Pinta  deserted 
with  his  ship  and  left  him  only  the  flag- 
ship Santa  Maria  and  the  small  Nina  to 
continue  the  voyage.  Speeding  on  as 
rapidly  as  the  difficult  navigation  would 
permit,  the  two  ships  came  to  anchor  off 
a  small  village  now  known  as  Port  de 
Paix,  which  was  so  beautiful  a  spot  that 
he  called  it  the  Vale  of  Paradise.  Here 
Columbus  opened  communication  with 
the  Indian  King  or  Cacique  Guacanagari, 
who  ruled  one  of  the  five  principal 
divisions  of  the  island  and  who  sent  him 
presents  of  gold  and  assured  him  that 
more  could  be  found  farther  to  the  east- 
ward. Columbus  had  no  doubt  at  this 
time  that  he  had  reached  the  Asiatic  con- 
tinent, and  he  was  anxious  to  return  and 
report  his  good  fortune  to  his  king  and 
queen.  But  unfortunately  soon  after 
leaving  Port  de  Paix  his  flag-ship,  the 


Santa  Maria,  drifted  upon  a  shoal  and  be- 
came a  total  wreck. 

THE  FIRST  SETTLEMENT  IN  THE  NEW 
WORLD 

As  the  better  part  of  his  force  was  em- 
barked on  board  this  ship,  his  position 
was  most  precarious,  and  he  was  forced 
to  at  once  build  a  fort  on  shore  and  leave 
in  it  a  large  portion  of  his  men  for  a 
garrison. 

The  wreck  occurred  near  the  present 
port  of  Cape  Haitien,  on  Christmas  eve, 
1492.  The  hospitable  natives  lent  willing 
hands,  and  Columbus  soon  had  the  fort 
constructed  from  the  salvage  of  his  ship 
near  a  village  then  called  Guarico.  This 
he  named  the  Fortress  of  Navidad;  and 
this  was  the  first  structure  built  in  Amer- 
ica. Soon  after  the  fort  was  completed 
he  left  it  with  a  garrison  of  30  men  and, 
proceeding  to  the  eastward,  he  was  for- 
tunate to  again  fall  in  with  the  Pinta, 
which  vessel  had  deserted  him  in  Cuba, 
and  in  company  with  that  ship  he  re- 
turned to  Spain  to  make  his  report. 

His  grateful  sovereigns  soon  fitted  him 
out  again  with  a  force  of  17  ships  and 
several  hundred  men  to  carry  on  his  ex- 
plorations from  Fort  Navidad,  and 
among  those  who  enlisted  for  the  voyage 
were  a  large  number  of  his  wealthy 
countrymen,  who  cast  in  their  lot  and 
their  fortunes  with  him  in  order  to  gain 
a  share  of  the  golden  prize  which  the 
Admiral  assured  them  was  within  their 
grasp.  But,  as  is  usual  where  avarice  is 
the  ruling  spirit,  troubles  grew  faster 
than  riches.  His  first  great  misfortune 
after  his  return  was  to  find  that  all  of 
the  garrison  he  had  left  at  Navidad  had 
been  slain  by  the  natives  of  the  interior, 
notwithstanding  his  good  friend  Gua- 
canagari had  defended  them  with  such 
gallantry  as  to  produce  the  almost  entire 
destruction  of  his  own  people. 

Columbus  then  determined  to  build  a 
permanent  settlement,  and  after  recon- 
noitering  he  selected  for  this  purpose  a 
site  on  an  elevated  plain  near  a  spacious 
bay  on  the  north  coast  of  the  island. 
Here  was  established  the  first  town  in 


204 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


the  New  World,  which  was  dignified  by 
the  name  of  his  queen  and  patron, 
Isabella. 

The  position  of  the  town  had  the  only 
advantage  of  being  contiguous  to  the  gold 
country,  which  was  the  real  objective  of 
the  party;  consequently  the  center  of  ac- 
tivities was  soon  transferred  to  other 
parts  of  the  island,  and  Isabella  became 
only  a  name  with  a  few  ruins  to  show 
from  whence  the  first  expedition  into  the 
interior  had  started. 

Leaving  a  small  force  at  Isabella, 
Columbus  set  out  for  the  gold  fields  in 
the  interior  which  he  had  been  led  to  be- 
lieve existed  there.  Passing  up  the 
banks  of  the  river  Bijo-Bonico,  he 
crossed  the  mountains  through  a  pass 
which  he  called  El  Puerto  de  los  Hidal- 
gos, or  ''Gentlemen's  Pass,"  in  honor  of 
the  gentlemen  who  composed  his  party. 
Here  opened  out  the  beautiful  Yaqui 
Valley,  through  which  flows  the  river  to 
which  he  gave  the  name  of  the  Rio  del 
Oro,  or  River  of  Gold.  The  valley  he 
called  Vega  Real,  or  Royal  Valley,  as  it 
was  the  most  beautiful  he  had  ever  seen. 

The  natives,  resenting  the  intrusion  of 
the  foreigners,  swarmed  in  great  num- 
bers to  contest  their  passage  into  the  gold 
fields ;  but  the  unarmed  hosts  of  the  island 
were  no  match  for  the  disciplined  troops 
of  Spain,  and  they  were  overcome  and 
slaughtered  in  great  numbers.  A  fort- 
ress was  established  on  the  Janico  River, 
called  Saint  Tomas,  which  the  natives  at- 
tempted to  take  with  such  disastrous  re- 
sults that  they  gave  up  for  a  time  all 
further  resistance  to  the  conquerors. 
Columbus  was  now  fully  satisfied  that  he 
had  reached  the  Cipango  of  the  East 
Indies,  for  which  place  he  had  originally 
set  out. 

AN  UNHAPPY   MARRIAGE 

But  the  course  of  empire  was  still 
south,  and  soon  Santo  Domingo  City  be- 
came the  center  of  the  colonial  activities. 

A  little  love  affair  connected  with  the 
growth  of  this  city  is  interesting  in  this 
connection.  One  of  the  Spanish  party, 
Miguel  Dias,  having  gotten  into  difficulty 


with  an  officer,  severely  wounding  him  in 
combat,  fled  to  escape  punishment.  Find- 
ing shelter  in  an  Indian  village  and  being 
received  with  much  cordiality  and  hospi- 
tality, he  in  return  gave  his  heart  to  the 
young  Caguisas,  who  was  then  govern- 
ing the  tribe.  His  protestations  met  with 
favor,  and  the  young  Spaniard  soon 
found  himself  the  consort  of  a  queen  of 
no  mean  accomplishments.  But  he  soon 
wearied  of  his  environment  and  sighed 
for  his  old  companions.  The  queen, 
seeing  his  discontent  and  fearing  to  lose 
him,  gave  him  the  secret  of  her  vast 
wealth  and,  loading  him  with  the  precious 
metal,  sent  him  back  to  the  Spaniards  to 
induce  them  to  return  with  him  and  settle 
in  her  country.  Dias  delivered  this  mes- 
sage to  Columbus,  who  immediately 
ordered  an  exploration  of  that  part  of 
the  island  to  ascertain  the  truth  of  the 
Spaniard's  report. 

The  sequel  to  this  little  love  affair  is 
also  interesting,  but  most  pathetic.  Zam- 
caca,  after  giving  her  all  to  her  lover, 
who  was  thereby  promoted  to  high  honors 
in  the  colony,  being  the  first  alcalde  of  the 
new  city,  was  so  disheartened  by  the  cruel 
treatment  accorded  her  people  that  she 
fled  from  civilization  and  affluence  to  the 
wilds  of  the  forests,  leaving  her  two 
children  and  still  faithful  husband  to 
mourn  her  loss,  and  was  never  heard 
from  again. 

From  this  origin,  so  casual  and  domes- 
tic, arose  the  first  permanent  city  of  the 
New  World. 

Thus  the  Spaniards  were  drawn  to  the 
south  of  the  island,  where  they  built  a 
fort  called  New  Isabella,  and  Columbus, 
who  was  about  to  return  to  Spain,  was 
so  impressed  by  the  glowing  accounts  of 
the  section  given  him  by  his  men  that  he 
ordered  his  brother,  Don  Bartholomew, 
to  select  a  site  and  build  a  town.  A  place 
was  chosen  on  the  banks  of  the  Ozamas 
River,  and  here  arose  the  first  permanent 
city  of  the  New  World,  which  was  named 
Santo  Domingo,  after  Columbus'  father. 

Soon  after  the  Great  Admiral  took  his 
departure  for  Spain,  discord  became  rife 
among  his  subjects,  and,  this  eventually 


HAITI:    A  DEGENERATING  ISLAND 


205 


developing  into  open  mutiny,  there  was 
inaugurated  a  rebellion  against  the  pow- 
ers that  be  which,  repeated  from  time  to 
time,  has  made  up  the  principal  history  of 
the  island  to  this  day. 

THE    OLD    SPLENDOR    OF    SANTO    DOMINGO 

In  a  short  time  the  city  of  Santo  Do- 
mingo became  one  of  great  importance, 
and  is  described  as  not  inferior  to  any  in 
Spain.  When  at  last  Don  Diego  Colum- 
bus, to  whom  the  great  discoverer,  now 
dead,  bequeathed  his  rights  as  well  as  his 
perplexities,  became  the  ruler  of  the 
province,  he  set  up  a  court  which  vied  in 
splendor  and  magnificence  with  that  of 
the  king  himself.  Diego's  ambition  was 
to  build  such  a  capital  here  as  would  cor- 
respond in  greatness  to  the  New  World 
his  father  had  discovered  and  to  the  fame 
and  dignity  of  his  family.  The  court  of  his 
young  and  beautiful  queen  was  thronged 
by  a  circle  of  attendants  from  her  own 
class  in  Spain  which  professed  to  be  the 
best  blood  of  Castile.  Magnificent  public 
buildings  were  erected,  the  cathedral  was 
highly  endowed  and  built  with  artistic 
taste,  while  the  monasteries  were  made 
monuments  to  the  Christian  sentiment  of 
the  foreigners. 

The  richness  and  abundance  of  gold 
found  in  the  rivers  of  the  island  at  first 
brought  great  wealth  to  the  Spaniards; 
but  it  was  soon  recognized  that  cultiva- 
tion of  the  soil  was  of  more  value  than 
the  mines,  which  could  only  be  profitably 
worked  with  the  means  then  extant  as 
long  as  the  gold  was  found  on  the  sur- 
face, and  hence  agriculture  became  the 
principal  industry  of  the  islanders.  But 
the  gentlemen  from  Spain  were  too  proud 
to  labor  themselves,  and  being  anxious  to 
gain  fortunes  in  a  short  time,  they  drove 
the  Indians  beyond  their  strength,  and 
they  died  in  rapidly  increasing  numbers. 
Thus  was  killed  the  goose  which  laid  the 
golden  egg,  for  without  the  laborers  the 
masters  became  land  poor.  The  old  feel- 
ing of  sedition  and  discontent  still  exist- 
ing in  the  hearts  of  the  colonists,  together 
with  the  loss  of  labor,  soon  produced  a 
condition  of  things  that  was  most  un- 


promising for  the  future  welfare  of  the 
colony. 

^  King  Ferdinand,  at  first  jealous  of  the 
Columbian  dynasty  and  the  rising  im- 
portance of  Hispaniola,  now  began  to 
realize  but  little  on  his  investment,  and  he 
soon  lost  interest  in  the  administration  of 
the  colony  and  devoted  his  attention  to 
the  discoveries  in  other  parts  of  the  Xew 
World. 

^  The  most  redeeming  feature  in  the 
Spanish  control  of  Hispaniola  was  the 
struggle  of  Las  Casas,  the  celebrated 
bishop  of  Chiapa,  to  save  the  natives,  to 
whom  the  island  rightfully  belonged, 
from  the  utter  annihilation  to  which  the 
brutal  system  of  slavery  inaugurated  by 
his  countrymen  was  fast  driving  them. 
In  his  vain  endeavor  to  alleviate  the  suf- 
ferings of  the  aborigines  he  went  even  so 
far  as  to  be  credited  with  introducing  into 
the  island  the  inhabitants  of  Africa,  who 
had  become  objects  of  barter  between  the 
Portuguese  and  other  European  states, 
and  thus  was  established  the  slave  trade 
in  America — a  curse  that  was  quite  as 
injurious  to  the  well  being  of  the  island 
as  the  one  he  endeavored  to  overcome. 

RIVALRY  OF  ENGLAND  AND  FRANCE  FOR 
HAITI 

The  history  of  Santo  Domingo  during 
the  1 6th  century  can  hardly  be  given 
here,  even  if  it  were  sufficiently  important 
to  warrant  its  repetition.  Suffice  it  to 
say  that  the  destruction  of  the  aborigines 
was  now  complete  and  the  colony  rapidly 
degenerated  in  wealth,  but  the  power  rep- 
resented in  the  control  of  all  the  colonies 
belonging  to  Spain  became  the  envy  of 
her  European  sisters. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  I7th  century 
the  English  and  French  combined  to  se- 
cure a  portion  of  the  growing  wealth  of 
the  New  World,  and  this  resulted  in  es- 
tablishing in  1630,  on  the  neighboring 
Island  of  Tortuga,  a  band  of  robbers 
which  carried  on  piratical  operations  in 
its  worst  form.  Then,  becoming  more 
powerful,  they  began  depredations  on 
Hispaniola,  finding  that  hunting  its  vast 
and  verdant  fields,  which  abounded  in 


206 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


cattle,  to  be  more  remunerative  than  cut- 
ting the  throats  of  their  victims  on  the 
;sea. 

The  discord  that  naturally  followed  this 
copartnership  eventually  resulted  in  the 
French  buccaneers  gaining  the  mastery 
over  their  British  allies,  forcing  the  latter 
to  take  up  their  abode  on  the  Island  of 
Jamaica,  and  thus  leaving  the  French  in 
possession  of  the  Island  of  Tobago,  and 
naturally  the  northern  coast  of  Santo 
Domingo  also  came  under  French  juris- 
diction. 

AN    UNDESIRABLE 


From  now  on  the  French  in  the  west 
and  Spanish  people  in  the  east  wrestled  in 
almost  continuous  strife  for  the  mastery 
of  Santo  Domingo,  thereby  checking  for 
a  while  the  progress  of  the  island  and 
disposing  the  inhabitants  to  laziness  and 
vice.  It  should  be  noted  that,  unlike  the 
American  continental  emigrants,  the 
West  Indian  voyagers  went  forth  to 
seek  gold  only  and  had  no  thought  of 
making  permanent  settlements.  They 
therefore  left  behind  them  their  sweet- 
hearts and  wives,  to  whom  they  expected 
to  return,  and  in  order  to  increase  the 
value  of  the  French  possessions  there 
were  introduced  into  the  island  at  this 
time  a  class  of  women  who  were  but 
little  better  than  the  buccaneers  them- 
selves. The  mingling  of  the  blood  of  this 
refuse  of  European  civilization  gave  to 
their  descendants  characters  as  low  as  can 
exist  in  human  nature,  and  to  this  fact 
is  largely  due  the  present  condition  of  the 
people  here. 

In  1776  the  line  of  clemarkation  be- 
tween the  French  and  Spanish  portions  of 
the  island  was  defined  practically  as  it 
exists  today.  After  this  settlement  of 
the  boundary  question  the  different  colo- 
nies became  more  friendly  and  business 
between  them  increased,  until  finally,  by 
the  treaty  of  Bole,  signed  July  22,  1795, 
France  came  into  possession  of  the  whole 
island  ;  but  the  formal  abandonment  of 
the  Spanish  government  of  its  control 
did  not  take  place  until  January  27,  1801. 


THE     DIFFERENCE     BETWEEN     HAITI     AND 
SANTO   DOMINGO 

Although  the  whole  island  was  now 
under  French  rule,  the  two  parts,  east  and 
west,  were  irremediably  separated  by  the 
interests  of  the  different  races.  In  the 
eastern  section  the  foreigners  were  in 
numbers  about  as  one  to  four  of  the 
negroes ;  in  the  western  section  of  the 
island  the  proportion  of  the  blacks  to 
whites  was  much  larger — at  least  15  to 
i.  This  disproportion  of  numbers  in  the 
races  accounts  for  the  continued  domina- 
tion of  the  whites  in  the  east,  while  the 
western  portion  of  the  island  later  became 
the  Black  Republic. 

Following  the  French  supremacy,  Haiti 
proper  rapidly  rose  in  the  scale  of  pros- 
perity, becoming  the  principal  colonial 
gem  in  the  French  crown;  but  its  prog- 
ress was  founded  upon  an  insecure  base 
and  a  fall  was  inevitable.  It  is  said  that 
fourteen  hundred  vessels  were  employed 
in  its  trade,  which  was  about  two-thirds 
of  the  whole  external  commerce  of 
France. 

Among  the  mulattoes,  or  free  men  of 
color,  were  many  of  intellect  and  refine- 
ment, who  had  been  well  educated  in 
France,  such  as  Rigaud,  Baurais,  Petion, 
Borgella,  and  Dumas,  the  father  of  the 
celebrated  novelist,  and  although  they 
were  few  in  number,  such  men  aspired  to 
a  legal  and  civil  equality  with  the  whites, 
and  in  striving  for  this  they  naturally  felt 
little  sympathy  with  the  slave  population 
and  refused  to  connect  themselves  with 
them  until  too  late.  To  harmonize  all  the 
conflicting  interests  of  this  mixture  of 
races  was  beyond  the  capacity  of  the 
colonial  government. 

When  the  French  Revolution  finally 
broke  out  in  France,  throwing  the  whole 
of  Europe  in  consternation,  it  found  the 
French  colonists  quite  ripe  for  a  similar 
outbreak.  About  eight  hundred  of  the 
mulattoes  in  Haiti  had  enlisted  under  the 
name  of  the  Royal  Chasseurs  and  ac- 
companied Count  d'Estaing  in  his  expe- 
dition to  Savannah  during  the  war  of  the 
American  Revolution,  taking  part  in  our 


HAITI:  A  DEGENERATING  ISLAND 


207 


CATHEDRAL  AND  UNION   CLUB,  CAPE   HAITIAN 


208 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


HAITI:    A  DEGENERATING  ISLAND 


209 


own  struggle  for  freedom,  which 
strengthened  the  desire  of  the  Haitiens  to 
secure  their  own  independence.  Follow- 
ing the  example  thus  set  by  both  France 
and  America,  there  broke  out  that  fierce 
strife  known  as  "The  Horrors  of  the 
Negro  Insurrection  in  Santo  Domingo," 
which  has  so  darkened  the  pages  of  his- 
tory. 

It  should  not  be  forgotten,  however, 
that  the  fearful  cruelties  practiced  during 
this  insurrection  were  equally  shared  by 
both  black  and  white,  all  parties  seeming 
to  vie  with  each  other  in  the  excess  of 
atrocities.  Unlike  their  continental 
friends,  who  were  generally  actuated  by 
a  common  impulse,  the  interests  of  the 
islanders  were  hopelessly  divided.  The 
population  consisted  at  this  time  of  about 
30,000  whites,  mostly  planters,  who  had 
been  made  wealthy  by  the  labor  of  the 
slaves ;  but  they  were  separated  into  irrec- 
oncilable factions.  Second,  there  were, 
about  the  same  number  of  mulattoes, 
many  of  them  property-owners,  whose 
social,  industrial,  and  legal  rights  had 
been  restricted  to  a  humiliating  degree 
by  the  Royalists.  Third,  there  were 
nearly  500,000  black  slaves,  who  were 
groaning  silently  under  a  cruel  form  of 
bondage  which  they  sought  to  shake  off. 

TOUSSAINT  I/OUVKRTURE; 

Soon  after  war  broke  out  there  ap- 
peared upon  the  scene  of  activities  that 
wonderful  character,  Toussaint  L'Ouver- 
ture,  who  wrested  the  command  of  the 
army  from  his  superiors,  Francois  and 
Baisson,  and  as  a  French  general  finally 
led  the  troops  to  victory. 

At  first  Toussaint  was  appointed  a 
surgeon  to  the  army,  as  he  had  some 
knowledge  of  simple  medicines,  which 
had  given  him  great  influence  on  his  mas- 
ter's estate,  and  he  used  this  knowledge 
for  the  benefit  of  the  insurgent  forces  to 
good  advantage. 

This  genius,  as  he  may  properly  be 
styled,  was  a  slave,  at  first  known  as 
Toussaint  Bieda,  from  the  name  of  his 
master's  estate,  and  later  as  Toussaint 
L'Ouverture,  by  which  he  is  known  in 


history,  owing  to  the  fact  that  he  had 
overturned  the  government. 

He  was  born  about  1746,  of  negro 
parents,  his  father  being  an  imported 
African  and,  as  stated  by  tradition,  the 
son  of  a  chief.  Delicate  as  a  child,  the 
nickname  of  Fatras-Baton,  or  "Little 
Lath,"  as  it  has  been  translated,  was 
given  him.  Although  small  and  insig- 
nificant in  person  when  young,  he  later 
became  possessed  of  great  strength  and 
endurance.  He  had  received  in  youth 
some  education  from  a  brother  slave,  and 
knew  how  to  read  and  write  and  speak 
the  French  language  as  well  as  the  Creole 
patois,  and  it  is  said  had  some  knowledge 
of  drawing.  He  was  fifty  years  old  at 
the  time  of  the  insurrection. 

This  really  remarkable  man,  who,  con- 
sidering his  education  and  environments, 
has  not  been  inaptly  compared  to  Wash- 
ington and  Napoleon,  was  now  to  find 
himself  the  master  of  the  island.  Be- 
loved to  the  point  of  enthusiasm  by  the 
negroes,  who  had  raised  him  to  the  dig- 
nity he  enjoyed,  he  was  honored  and  re- 
spected by  public  representatives  of  other 
nations  writh  whom  he  had  dealings. 

When  there  was  a  lull  in  the  strife 
which  gave  him  relief  from  military  cares, 
he  devoted  his  whole  time  to  the  arts  of 
peace,  and  the  policy  of  his  whole  admin- 
istration was  characterized  by  the  same 
sagacity  and  prudence  which  had  distin- 
guished his  exploits  in  the  field.  He  re- 
stored the  planters  to  their  estates  and 
pushed  forward  the  cultivation  of  the 
soil,  realizing,  as  does  Booker  Washing- 
ton, the  negro  chieftan  in  the  United 
States,  that  the  salvation  of  his  people 
was  occupation  for  mind  and  body,  and 
that  the  land  was  given  them  as  a  talent 
from  which  they  must  earn  a  living. 

As  the  ancient  colonial  government 
was  now  at  an  end  and  all  official  inter- 
course with  France  cut  off,  Toussaint 
promulgated  a  new  constitution,  which 
recognized  the  equality  of  the  races  and 
as  much  freedom  of  trade  as  possible.  A 
governor  was  to  be  named  for  five  years, 
but  on  account  of  the  eminent  services  of 
Toussaint,  he  was  to  occupy  the  post  for 


2io          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


life,  with  the  power  to  name  a  successor. 
This  proclamation  was  made  in  due  form 
in  1801. 

He  decreed  that  slavery  should  be  for- 
ever abolished,  and  at  the  same  time  the 
planters  were  by  law  required  to  give  a 
fifth  part  of  the  crops  in  payment  for  the 
labor  of  the  freed  slaves,  and  at  the  same 
time  the  negroes  were  compelled  to  labor 
for  their  sustenance.  To  carry  this 
scheme  into  practical  operation  was  a  no 
less  difficult  task  for  him  than  for  the 
negroes,  but  the  ex-slaves  were,  with 
few  exceptions,  contented  and  happy. 

Though  the  Spanish  colony  had  been 
formally  ceded  to  France  in  1795,  and 
different  posts  had  in  consequence  been 
actually  occupied  by  the  Republican 
troops,  yet  the  city  of  Santo  Domingo, 
the  capital  of  the  eastern  part  of  the 
island,  still  remained  in  the  hands  of  the 
Spaniards.  To  obtain  possession  of  the 
capital  and  to  establish  such  regulations 
as  might  be  required  on  its  change  of 
government,  Toussaint  made  a  trip 
through  the  whole  island  for  this  purpose, 
which  was  in  reality  a  triumphal  march 
after  his  great  victories  in  the  field.  The 
end  of  the  year  1801  found  every  part  of 
Santo  Domingo  in  quiet  submission  to  the 
negro  chief  and  rapidly  improving  in 
wealth  and  happiness  under  his  wise  ad- 
ministration. With  the  aid  of  the  whites, 
whom  Toussaint  was  anxious  to  befriend, 
agriculture  was  beginning  to  improve; 
the  finances  were  getting  in  order,  and 
the  government  was  being  wisely  and 
regularly  administered.  This  prosper- 
ity, however,  was  soon  to  be  interrupted 
by  calamities  as  serious  as  any  which  had 
ever  visited  the  ill-fated  island. 

CAPTURE  OF  TOUSSAINT  I/OUVERTURE  BY 
TREACHERY 

War  having  ceased  between  Great 
Britain  and  France  in  October,  1801,  the 
French  navy,  which  had  not  for  several 
years  been  able  to  leave  its  ports  without 
fear  of  capture,  was  once  more  free,  and 
Bonaparte  determined  to  recapture  Santo 
Domingo.  Although  Toussaint  had  in  no 
way  separated  the  colony  from  the 


mother  country,  Napoleon  became  sus- 
picious of  the  black  general's  ambition 
and,  fearing  lest  his  principal  colony 
should  slip  away  from  him,  he  was  in- 
duced to  listen  to  the  strong  appeals  of 
the  planters  whose  estates  had  been 
ruined  by  the  negro  insurrection,  who 
insisted  that  they  could  not  be  restored 
unless  slavery  was  again  resumed.  To 
counteract  the  growing  tendency  of  the 
islanders  to  free  themselves  from  his 
control,  as  well  as  to  offset  any  possi- 
bilities of  his  everlasting  enemy,  England, 
reaping  benefit  from  an  alliance  with  the 
new  country  if  left  to  act  for  itself,  Na- 
poleon planned  and  fitted  out  the  famous 
expedition  of  1802  to  bring  the  colony 
again  under  subjection.  His  brother-in- 
law,  General  Leclerc,  was  given  an  im- 
posing force  of  30,000  men,  reinforced, 
it  is  said,  from  time  to  time  up  to  55,000. 
The  general  embarked  and  with  his  naval 
convoy  proceeded  to  Cape  Haitien,  where 
he  arrived  on  the  I2th  of  February  of 
that  year.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that 
the  avowed  object  of  the  expedition  was 
to  restore  slavery,  although  this  object 
was  disguised  by  kindly  and  friendly  let- 
ters to  Toussaint,  such  as  Napoleon  knew 
so  well  how  to  write. 

It  is  not  intended  to  go  into  the  history 
of  this  fatal  attempt  on  the  part  of  the 
French  government  to  reenslave  its  sub- 
jects— a  history  that  is  characterized  by 
unspeakable  atrocities  on  the  part  of  the 
French,  who  set  an  example  that  was 
speedily  followed  in  retaliation  by  the 
negroes.  Toussaint,  assisted  by  his  two 
principal  chiefs,  Christophe  and  Dessa- 
lines,  fought  with  the  bravery  of  desper- 
ation ;  but  they  were  at  last  overcome,  not 
by  battle,  but  by  the  artful  persuasion  and 
duplicity  of  his  enemy  in  debauching  his 
own  people,  who  were  tired  of  the  strug- 
gle. Finally  a  truce  was  declared  and  the 
tricolor  again  waved  over  the  whole  land. 

RETRIBUTION  BY  THE  BLACKS 

Probably  one  of  the  blackest  pages  in 
Napoleon's  record  is  his  treachery  to 
Toussaint  in  cajoling  him  into  disarma- 
ment and  then  having  him  kidnapped 


HAITI:    A  DEGENERATING  ISLAND 


211 


and  carried  back  to  France  to  die  in  a 
dungeon.  But  retribution  speedily  fol- 
lowed this  perfidity,  for  the  negroes, 
seeing  their  beloved  chief  so  basely  and 
cruelly  treated,  again  hoisted  the  flag  of 
rebellion  and,  under  the  leadership  of 
Dessalines  and  Christophe,  assisted  by 
the  pestilential  yellow  fever,  they  drove 
the  intruders  out  of  the  island  and  into 
the  hands  of  their  implacable  enemy,  the 
British,  who  had  again  declared  war 
against  France.  It  is  said  that  this  expe- 
dition to  reenslave  the  blacks  cost  Napo- 
leon $40,000,000,  besides  almost  all  of  his 
troops. 

On  the  first  of  January,  1804,  Dessa- 
lines, who  followed  Toussaint  as  general- 
in-chief  of  the  army,  promulgated  the 
declaration  of  Haitien  independence,  and 
the  country  has  remained  the  Black  Re- 
public ever  since.  The  name  of  Haiti, 
as  the  island  was  designated  by  the  abo- 
riginal inhabitants,  was  now  revived  and 
has  never  been  changed.  Dessalines,  who 
was  soon  afterward  proclaimed  em- 
peror, started  a  bloodthirsty  policy  of 
exterminating  the  French  subjects  who 
still  remained  in  the  country,  and  his  acts 
of  cruelty  showed  how  well  he  had  been 
schooled  under  the  French;  but  in  spite 
of  this  many  of  the  planters,  who  had  the 
alternative  of  falling  into  the  hands  of 
the  English  or  run  the  risk  of  being  mur- 
dered by  the  negroes,  remained  on  the 
island,  and  as  Dessalines'  object  became 
later  to  restore  his  exhausted  male  popu- 
lace, they  were  gradually  allowed  to  re- 
sume tilling  the  soil. 

Dessalines'  administration  was,  for- 
tunately for  the  Republic,  short-lived,  but 
his  cruel  nature  and  implacable  hatred 
of  the  whites  led  him  into  such  acts  of 
bloodshed  as  to  shame  even  his  own  race. 
At  the  time  of  the  insurrection  in  1791 
he  was  a  slave  to  a  negro  whose  name 
was  Dessalines,  and  this  surname  was 
added  to  his  own,  Jean  Jacques.  He  was 
short  in  stature  and  strongly  built,  of 
great  activity  and  undaunted  courage. 
He  undoubtedly  had  great  military  tal- 
ents in  spite  of  his  want  of  education, 
but  the  respect  he  commanded  was  due 


rather  more  to  the  terror  he  inspired  than 
to  his  ability  as  a  general.  He  was  at 
last  conspired  against  by  his  own  army, 
arrested,  and  killed  in  an  attempt  to 
escape,  October  17,  1806 

During  the  insurrection  the  Revolu- 
tionists, who  were  mainly  composed  of 
the  negroes,  had  their  headquarters  in 
the  north,  generally  at  Cape  Francois. 
While  the  colored  people,  many  of  whom 
were  small  property-owners,  had  estab- 
lished a  colony  by  themselves  in  the 
southern  part  of  the  island,  and  having 
but  little  in  common  with  the  slaves,  there 
was  a  gradual  separation  of  the  two 
classes,  the  blacks  predominating  in  the 
north  and  the  colored  people  in  the  south. 

Upon  Dessalines'  death,  Christophe, 
one  of  Toussaint's  generals,  took  his 
place,  and  several  years  later  declared 
himself  king  under  the  title  of  Henry  I, 
King  of  Haiti. 

Christophe  and  his  wife  were  crowned 
as  king  and  queen  at  Cape  Francois,  to 
which  place  was  given  the  name  of  Cape 
Henry.  The  royal  court,  copied  after  the 
monarchies  of  Europe,  was  established 
here,  and  a  full  line  of  titles  was  given 
out,  many  of  them,  such  as  the  Count  de 
Lemonade  and  the  Duke  de  Marmalade, 
still  existing  on  the  island.  Christophe, 
during  all  his  reign  of  12  years,  put  forth 
his  utmost  energies  to  develop  the  natural 
prosperity  of  the  island.  He  introduced 
the  Protestant  religion  and  the  English 
language  into  the  schools,  but  at  the  same 
time  he  never  ceased  to  prepare  to  defend 
his  country  against  the  French,  which  he 
rightly  feared  would  again  attempt  to 
reenslave  it. 

On  a  lofty  mountain  top  above  the 
beautiful  valley  of  Millot,  back  of  Cape 
Haitien,  he  built  that  remarkable  struc- 
ture known  as  Sans  Souci.  He  lived  in 
this  palace  with  his  suite  in  a  state  of 
regal  splendor.  The  ruins  of  the  palace, 
now  overgrown  by  tropical  plants,  are  a 
monument  to  Christophe's  engineering 
skill ;  but  more  wonderful  still  is  the  stu- 
pendous castle  fortress,  built  as  a  refuge 
in  case  the  French  should  again  appear. 
Within  the  walls  of  this  fortress,  which 


212 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


are  one  hundred  feet  high  and  twenty 
feet  thick,  many  of  the  three  hundred 
guns  which  were  mounted  on  its  parapets 
remain  to  show  the  skill  and  endurance 
which  enabled  them  to  be  brought  up  the 
steep  mountain  sides. 

•THE  EASTERN  END  OF  THE  ISLAND  ASKED 
FOR  ANNEXATION  TO  UNITED  STATES 

In  1844  the  people  of  the  eastern  end 
of  the  island  again  separated  themselves 
from  Haiti  and  established  the  Republic 
of  Santo  Domingo,  or  the  Dominican  Re- 
public, as  it  is  officially  designated,  and 
from  that  date  to  the  present  time  the 
two  divisions  have  been  maintained. 

Under  the  directions  of  a  resolution 
passed  in  the  United  States  Congress 
January  12,  1871,  a  commission  was  dis- 
patched by  President  Grant  to  investigate 
the  conditions  in  Santo  Domingo.  This 
country  has  always,  more  or  less,  been  a 
source  of  solicitude  to  us  lest  some  Euro- 
pean power  should  again  attempt  aggres- 
sions against  the  Monroe  Doctrine.  The 
•commission  was  the  result  of  an  almost 
unanimous  vote  by  the  inhabitants  of  the 
Republic  in  favor  of  annexation  of  their 
-country  to  the  United  States.  The  report 
•of  the  commission  was  favorable  to  its 
annexation,  and  being  approved  by  Presi- 
dent Grant,  it  was  submitted  to  the  Sen- 
ate, which,  however,  took  no  action  upon 
it.  On  January  10,  1873,  the  Bay  and 
Peninsula  of  Samana  were  ceded  to  a 
•company  formed  in  the  United  States, 
and  through  the  means  this  company 
afforded  us  it  was  thought  a  coaling  sta- 
tion might  be  established  here  for  the  use 
•of  the  navy,  but  it  is  probably  fortunate 
for  us,  at  least,  that  this  was  not  done, 
.and  as  the  contract  with  the  company  was 
withdrawn  in  March,  1874,  the  matter 
was  eliminated  from  our  diplomacy. 

As  will  always  be  the  case,  the  offi- 
•cers  of  the  United  States  Navy  have  been 
interested  spectators  in  the  progress  of 
this  island.  The  navy  is  now  engaged  in 
an  extensive  hydrographic  survey  along 
its  coasts,  which  is  much  needed,  not  only 
for  ourselves,  but  for  the  commerce  of  the 
world  in  general. 


Many  naval  officers  who  have  been  sent 
to  guard  American  interests  on  the  island 
have  frequently  been  called  upon  to 
handle  matters  of  international  policy, 
and  the  responsibility  resting  upon  them 
at  such  times  is  rarely  conveyed  by  the 
brief  accounts  given  of  such  transactions 
in  the  daily  press.  Almost  always  during 
the  many  local  disturbances  which  occur 
here  an  American  war  vessel  is  present, 
and  sometimes  her  captain  is  called  upon 
to  settle,  upon  the  spur  of  the  moment, 
questions  that  might  affect  the  very  peace 
of  the  nation,  and  the  officer  must  stand 
or  fall  as  his  course  meets  with  approval 
or  disapproval  by  his  superiors.  A  long 
list  of  such  cases  might  be  made,  but  I 
will  briefly  refer  to  only  one. 

PRESENT    CONDITIONS    IN    SANTO   DOMINGO 

As  stated  by  the  President  in  his  an- 
nual message  to  Congress  for  the  year 
1905,  "The  conditions  in  Santo  Domingo 
have,  for  a  number  of  years,  grown  from 
bad  to  worse,  until  a  year  ago  all  society 
was  on  the  verge  of  dissolution.  For- 
tunately just  at  this  time  a  ruler  sprang 
up  in  Santo  Domingo  who,  with  his  col- 
leagues, saw  the  dangers  threatening  the 
country  and  appealed  to  the  friendship 
of  the  great  and  powerful  neighbor  who 
possessed  the  power  and,  as  they  hoped, 
also  the  will  to  help  them.  Accordingly 
the  executive  department  of  our  gov- 
ernment negotiated  a  treaty  under  which 
we  are  to  try  to  help  the  Dominican  peo- 
ple to  straighten  out  their  finances." 

For  this  purpose  Commander  A.  C. 
Dillingham,  owing  to  his  exceptional 
knowledge  of  the  conditions  in  the  Do- 
minican Republic,  due  to  an  extended 
tour  of  duty  in  that  country,  was  ap- 
pointed by  the  President  a  special  com- 
missioner and  sent  to  the  capital  city  Jan- 
uary 5,  1905,  to  prepare,  in  connection 
with  the  minister  resident  Mr  T.  C.  Dam- 
son, a  memorandum  of  the  treaty. 

The  treaty  is  still  held  in  abeyance 
by  the  Senate,  but  the  principal  feat- 
ures are  being  carried  out  by  American 
citizens  appointed  by  the  Dominican  Gov- 
ernment with  greater  marked  success 


HAITI:    A  DEGENERATING  ISLAND 


213 


BOYS  OF  SANTO  DOMINGO 


than  was  really  hoped  for.  The  collection 
of  practically  the  only  revenue  of  the  Re- 
public which  comes  from  a  tax  on  its 
exports  and  imports  is  thus  separated 
from  political  manipulation  and  pecula- 
tion and  the  receipts  are  divided  into 
two  parts,  45  per  cent  of  which  is  allotted 
for  the  expenses  of  the  government, 
while  the  remainder  goes  into  a  sinking 
fund  to  cancel  the  obligations  for  all 
claimants  who  hold  its  certificates  of  in- 
debtedness. The  result  thus  far  is  to  give 
into  the  public  treasury  from  the  smaller 
portion  of  its  income  a  greater  amount 
of  money  than  has  ever  been  received 
heretofore  from  the  whole  revenue  of 
the  Republic.  We  may  well  consider 
if  this  part  of  our  duty  as  an  elder  brother, 
which  we  owe  to  our  small  sister  re- 
publics on  the  American  continent,  is 
not  of  more  benefit  to  ourselves,  to  say 
nothing  of  our  moral  obligations,  than 
would  be  a  resort  to  physical  force,  which 
we  might  be  led  to  use  in  order  to  pro- 


tect the  principles  of  the  Monroe  Doc- 
trine, which  is  the  basis  of  our  political 
power. 

THE    REMAINS    OF    COLUMBUS    SAID   TO    BE 
AT  SANTO  DOMINGO 

One  achievement  of  which  the  Domin- 
ican people  are  very  proud  is  that  of  still 
retaining  within  their  borders  all  that 
remains  of  the  illustrious  discoverer  of 
America. 

These  remains  were  sent  from  Val- 
ladolid,  Spain,  after  the  death  of  Colum- 
bus, to  the  land  he  discovered,  and  de- 
posited in  the  cathedral  at  Santo  Do- 
mingo City.  When  the  island  passed 
under  French  control,  in  1795,  a  frigate 
was  sent  from  Havana  to  remove  to  that 
city  the  body  of  the  great  Captain.  The 
officials,  finding  a  vault  under  the  pave- 
ment of  the  Cathedral,  thought  a  person 
of  no  less  rank  than  Columbus  could 
be  buried  within,  but  they  failed  to  make 
such  an  examination  as  would  insure 


2I4 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


this  fact.  In  great  state  the  leaden  case 
containing  the  body  there  found  was 
transported  to  Havana  and  deposited  in 
a  niche,  made  for  that  purpose,  in  the 
cathedral  of  the  capital  city  of  the  Span- 
ish West  Indies.  In  1877,  while  repairs 
were  being  made  to  the  cathedral  in  Santo 
Domingo  City,  another  vault  was  dis- 
covered, containing  another  leaden  casket, 
in  which  there  were  not  only  fragments 
of  bones  but  a  silver  plate  oh  which  was 
the  name  "Don  Cristobal  Colon,  discov- 
erer of  America."  This  and  other  proofs 
found  showed  conclusively,  to  every  Do- 
minican at  least,  that  their  worshiped 
hero  was  safe  in  the  land  he  loved.  One 
can  imagine  the  rejoicing  that  the  dis- 
covery of  these  precious  relics  brought 
to  the  inhabitants.  It  is  certain  that 
they  were  in  marked  contrast  with  the 
reception  accorded  the  distinguished  Ad- 
miral in  Spain,  when  he  returned  in 
chains  from  his  last  voyage  to  the  New 
World.  Of  course,  the  Spanish  people 
would  never  admit  that  when  they  hauled 
down  their  flag  on  the  American  conti- 
nent, for  the  last  time,  on  January  i, 
1899,  they  did  not  take  with  them  all 
that  remained  of  the  man  who  had  done 
so  much  for  them  and  the  world  at  large. 

HAITI    IS   DEGENERATING   TO   A    CONDITION 
OF  BARBARISM 

It  is  not  possible  within  the  limits  of 
this  paper  to  go  into  details  regarding 
the  turbulent  history  of  Haiti.  The  fact 
that  of  its  21  rulers,  from  Dessalines  to 
the  one  now  holding  power,  four  only 
have  completed  their  terms  of  office,  the 
most  of  them  being  driven  out  of  the 
country,  will  show  the  general  tendency 
of  the  people  to  revolution.  History  is 
here  constantly  repeating  itself,  summed 
up  in  the  general  statement  that  the 
"outs"  are  always  struggling  to  get  into 
power,  while  the  "ins"  are  striving  to 
retain  possession  of.  the  spoils  of  office. 

It  is  said  that  Haiti  is  getting  blacker 
and  blacker,  the  white  element  having 
been  practically  exterminated  or  removed 
from  the  island.  It  is  not  that  the  whites 
are  unkindly  treated  here,  but  so  many 


difficulties  surround  their  holding  of 
property  that  development  is  impossibler 
and  the  white  people  are  reluctant  to 
invest  money  in  a  country  where  there 
is  such  little  promise  of  an  income  from 
it.  It  is  the  one  country  in  the  world 
where  white  blood  is  at  a  discount. 
There  is,  however,  quite  as  much  antag- 
onism existing  between  the  mulattoes  and 
the  blacks  as  is  usually  found  between 
the  blacks  and  whites  in  our  own  coun- 
try, so  the  colored  question  is  not  elimi- 
nated from  politics  even  here,  and  parties 
are  generally  lined  up  according  to  color, 
and  as  a  rule  the  blacks  and  mulattoes 
alternate  in  the  control  of  the  executive 
offices. 

In  all  its  political  history,  Haiti,  the 
beautiful,  has  been  torn  almost  to  shreds 
by  its  turbulent  inhabitants,  led  on  by  a 
few  inspiring  chiefs,  who  rarely  have  had 
any  other  object  in  view  than  personal 
gain.  The  inhabitants  themselves  are 
naturally  as  gentle,  except  when  over- 
come by  the  barbarous  religious  customs 
handed  down  from  their  African  ances- 
tors, as  were  the  aborigines  that  Colum- 
bus found  here.  A  traveler  may  pass 
from  one  end  of  the  island  to  the  other 
without  being  molested,  unless  his  visit 
happens  to  be  coincident  with  one  of  its 
many  revolutions,  when,  owing  to  the 
poor  shooting  of  the  soldiers  he  runs 
more  risk  of  his  life  than  do  the  partici- 
pants themselves.  The  Haitians  do  not 
consider  it  a  crime  to  rob  the  govern- 
ment, and  hence  stealing  from  it  is  gen- 
eral. They  rather  regard  it  as  a  duty  for 
the  government  to  provide  sustenance  for 
the  people,  and  if  it  does  not  do  so,  they 
use  their  prerogative  to  enforce  their 
claim. 

As  practically  90  per  cent  of  the  popu- 
lation are  descendants  from  the  former 
slaves,  who  have  no  higher  ambition  than 
to  possess  sufficient  means  to  supply  the 
demands  of  their  appetites,  their  wants 
are  easily  satisfied.  The  scant  clothing 
required  in  the  Torrid  Zone  is  obtained 
without  much  difficulty,  and  as  enlist- 
ment in  the  army  is  sure  to  gain  both  of 
these  necessities,  the  natives  naturally 


HAITI:    A  DEGENERATING  ISLAND 


2I5 


SKETCH    MAP   OF    HAITI 


seek  the  life  of  a  soldier,  and  as  such 
they  quickly  transfer  their  allegiance  to 
the  highest  bidder  or,  in  fact,  to  any  one 
offering  a  change.  Owing  to  the  general 
lack  of  enterprise  among  the  lower  classes 
of  the  people  and  the  greed  of  the  few 
who  from  time  to  time  control  the  admin- 
istration of  the  revenues,  the  only  hope 
of  the  country  is  to  have  some  strong 
man,  such  as  Diaz  of  Mexico,  revolu- 
tionize the  methods  of  the  government. 

VOODOOISM   STILL   PRACTICED 

No  accurate  history  of  Haiti  can  be 
written  without  a  reference  to  the  horri- 
ble sorcery,  called  the  religion  of  Voodoo, 
which  was  introduced  into  the  country 
with  the  slaves  from  Africa.  Its  creed 
is  that  the  God  Voodoo  has  the  power 
usually  ascribed  to  the  Christian's  Lord, 
and  that  he  shows  himself  to  his  good 
friends,  the  negroes,  under  the  form  of 
a  non-venomous  snake,  and  transmits  his 
power  through  a  chief  priest  or  priestess. 
These  are  called  either  king  and  queen, 
master  or  mistress,  or  generally  as  papa- 
lois  and  mama-lois.  The  principal  act  of 
worship  consists  of  a  wild  dance,  attended 
by  grotesque  gesticulations,  which  leads 
up  to  the  most  disgraceful  orgies. 


A  secret  oath  binds  all  the  voodoos,  on 
the  taking  of  which,  the  lips  of  the  neo- 
phyte are  usually  touched  with  warm 
goat's  blood,  which  is  intended  to  inspire 
terror.  He  promises  to  submit  to  death 
should  he  ever  reveal  the  secrets  of  the 
fraternity,  and  to  put  to  death  any  traitor 
to  the  sect.  It  is  affirmed,  and  no  doubt 
is  true,  that  on  special  occasions  a  sacri- 
fice is  made  of  a  living  child,  or  the 
"goat  without  horns,"  as  it  is  called,  and 
then  cannibalism  in  its  worst  form  is 
indulged  in.  Under  the  circumstances 
of  taking  the  oath  of  allegiance,  it  should 
cause  no  surprise  that  the  Haitiens  claim 
that  this  is  not  true  and  defy  any  white 
man  to  produce  evidence  of  guilt.  But, 
notwithstanding,  no  one  can  read  the  hor- 
rible tales  published  by  Sir  Spencer  Saint 
John,  one  of  the  British  ministers  to 
Haiti,  which  describes  in  detail  the  re- 
volting practices  of  the  voodoos,  together 
with  the  proofs  he  brings  to  substantiate 
the  truth  of  the  allegations,  without  com- 
ing to  the  reluctant  conclusion  that  canni- 
balism is  resorted  to  in  these  meetings.  Of 
course,  no  white  man  could  long  live  on 
the  island  after  having  given  testimony 
leading  to  the  conviction  of  culprits  in 
such  cases,  and  therefore  the  negroes' 


2  l6 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


demand  for  proof  can  never  be  satisfied. 
Indeed,  it  is  said  that  even  some  presi- 
dents who  have  openly  discouraged  the 
voodoo  practices  have  come  to  violent 
deaths  from  this  cause. 

TESTIMONY  OF  AN   EYE  WITNESS 

The  character  of  the  meetings  of  the 
voodoos,  which  take  place  in  secluded 
spots  in  the  thick  woods,  are  well  known, 
and  I  have  been  given  a  description  of 
one  of  them  from  an  eyewitness,  who  is 
an  officer  of  our  navy,  which  no  one 
could  hear  without  a  shudder.  He  states 
in  brief  that  one  day  while  out  hunting 
lie  abruptly  ran  into  a  camp  of  worship- 
ers, which  was  located  in  a  lonely  spot 
in  the  woods,  and  the  horrors  he  there 
saw  made  an  indelible  impression  upon 
his  mind. 

When  his  presence  was  discovered  he 
was  immediately  seized  by  a  frenzied 
•crowd  of  men  and  women,  and  for  some 
minutes  there  did  not  seem  to  be  a  ques- 
tion but  that  his  life  was  to  be  forfeited ; 
but  the  papa-lois  called  a  halt  and  a  coun- 
cil, apparently,  to  determine  what  action 
should  be  taken,  and  while  this  was  in 
session  a  handful  of  coin,  judicously  scat- 
tered, diverted  the  thoughts  of  the  ne- 
groes for  the  time  being  from  their  cap- 
tive. The  usual  sacrifice  of  a  live  white 
rooster  was  now  brought  on,  seeing 
which  the  people  were  called  back  to 
their  worship,  and  the  ceremonies  went 
on  in  his  presence. 

In  the  horrible  struggle  which  took 
place  for  possession,  the  bird  was  torn 
literally  to  pieces,  and  he  had  no  doubt 
that  its  accompaniment,  the  "goat  with- 
out horns,"  would  soon  follow.  While 
this  was  in  progress  his  presence  seemed 
to  be  forgotten,  and,  watching  a  good 
opportunity,  he  ran  for  his  very  life,  not 
stopping  until  he  reached  the  protection 
of  his  ship. 

This  officer  has  to  his  credit  one  of  the 
most  gallant  deeds  enacted  during  the 
Civil  War,  for  which  he  received  pro- 
motion by  act  of  Congress,  but  his  com- 
rades on  board  his  ship  said  they  never 


saw  a  man  more  frightened  than  he  was 
when  he  returned  to  them,  and  he  him- 
self says  the  memory  of  the  event  pro- 
duces a  horrible  nightmare  which  he 
will  never  be  able  to  overcome. 

There  is  no  doubt  these  voodoo  prac- 
tices keep  the  negro-  in  touch  with  that 
"call  of  the  wild"  which  perhaps  even  the 
white  man,  if  restricted  in  civilizing  in- 
fluences and  treated  as  they  have  been, 
might  be  led  to  follow ;  but  it  is  to  be 
hoped  that  education,  which  the  best  of 
the  Haitiens  are  now  acquiring  for  their 
own  families  and  are  striving  to  make 
universal  in  the  land,  will  in  a  few  years 
stamp  out  this  horrible  practice,  with  all 
its  evils.  It  is  well  for  us  to  consider 
whether  we  too  may  not  expect  some  such 
acts  of  savagery  to  break  out  in  our  coun- 
try if  our  own  colored  people  are  not  edu- 
cated for  better  things. 

PEST  HOLES  OF  THE  WEST  INDIKS 

Of  the  eleven  ports  of  Haiti  open  to 
foreign  commerce,  Cape  Haitien  and 
Port-au-Prince  are  the  largest  and  most 
progressive. 

Cape  Haitien,  or  "The  Cape,"  as  it  is 
commonly  called,  is  situated  on  the  north- 
western coast,  at  the  foot  of  a  hill  that 
slopes  back  to  the  sea,  with  most  pictur- 
esque surroundings.  It  has  a  commodi- 
ous harbor  and  supports  a  population  of 
30,000  or  40,000  people.  Under  the 
French,  it  was  the  capital  of  the  colony, 
and  its  wealth,  splendor,  and  luxury 
gained  for  it  the  name  of  Little  Paris ; 
but  now  the  structures  erected  by  the 
French  in  colonial  days  are  a  mass  of 
ruins,  the  parks  overgrown  with  tropical 
weeds,  the  fountains  chocked  with  debris, 
the  gutters  filled  with  filth,  all  produ- 
cing pestilential  emanations  from  which 
foreigners  speedily  run  away,  if  they  are 
forced  into  its  environments. 

Port-au-Prince,  the  present  capital  of 
the  Republic,  as  well  as  its  largest  and 
most  important  city,  is  likewise  most 
picturesquely  located  at  the  foot  of  hills, 
where  one  may  escape  from  its  blistering 
and  filthv  streets  to  mountain  resorts  that 


HAITI:    A  DEGENERATING  ISLAND 


217 


would  be  popular  if  located  in  almost 
any  country  of  the  world.  Unlike  Cape 
Haitien,  the  city  is  cut  off  from  the  trade 
winds,  to  which  this  island  owes  so  much 
for  its  salubriousness,  and  therefore  it  is 
hot ;  but  still  the  traveler  caught  in  the 
town  may  frequently  felicitate  himself 
when  he  reads  that  cities  in  our  own 
country  have  higher  temperatures  by  10 
to  15  degrees  than  is  usually  found  here. 
The  city  is  well  supplied  with  the  most 
delicious  mountain  water,  and  if  its 
60,000  inhabitants  used  it  as  freely  as  do 
Americans,  it  might  be  as  clean  as  nature 
made  it.  As  it  is,  it  may  well  hold  the 
palm  for  being  the  most  filthy,  foul  smell- 
ing, and  consequently  fever-stricken  city 
in  the  world.  The  gutters  of  the  streets, 
which  may  be  said  to  cover  the  whole 
road-beds,  are  filled  with  stagnant  waters 
and  are  used  as  cesspools  by  the  people. 
But  for  the  torrential  rains,  which  pour 
down  the  mountain  sides  and  carry  off  all 
the  filth  into  the  beautiful  bay,  even  a 
Haitien  could  not  live  there.  But  the 
bay,  thus  polluted,  is  quite  as  much  of  a 
menace  to  health  as  the  city  itself.  Dur- 
ing the  visits  of  American  men-of-war 
to  the  port,  most  of  the  time  is  spent  in 
keeping  the  people  from  the  pestilential 
vapors  which  emanate  from  the  sea  itself. 
The  water  of  the  harbor  is  so  bad  that 
it  cannot  be  used  even  for  scrubbing  the 
decks  of  the  ships. 

I  recall  a  painful  incident  which  oc- 
curred here  during  one  of  my  visits  many 
years  ago.  A  French  man-of-war  was 


anchored  in  the  Port  when  our  own 
cruiser  entered  it,  and  so  rapidly  were  her 
people  dying  from  the  dreaded  yellow 
fever  that  her  flag  remained  at  half-mast 
practically  all  during  our  stay  there.  A 
few  weeks  later  we  saw  this  same  vessel 
in  Hampton  Roads,  Virginia,  and  learned 
that  all  but  five  of  her  crew  had  died  from 
the  effects  of  the  fever,  after  which  they 
got  some  of  the  natives  to  sail  the  ship  to 
our  own  ports ;  but  even  the  natives  were 
so  reduced  in  number  that  it  was  neces- 
sary for  the  flag-ship  of  the  French  North 
American  squadron  to  tow  her  consort  to 
Halifax  in  an  effort  to  freeze  out  the 
dreadful  disease. 

It  is  thus  that  the  people  have  them- 
selves made  this  island  of  "Little  Spain" 
a  veritable  pest-hole. 

But  we  should  not  forget,  however, 
that  they  are  our  neighbors,  and  that  we 
owe  it  to  ourselves  as  a  Christian  nation 
to  help  them  over  the  many  pitfalls  of 
popular  government,  which  we  by  exam- 
ple led  them  to  establish  before  they  had 
gone  through  the  preparation  necessary 
for  the  proper  use  of  universal  suffrage, 
and  which  even  our  forefathers  were  not 
too  well  prepared  to  take  up,  after  hun- 
dreds of  years  of  enlightenment  and  study 
of  political  science  and  economy  and  re- 
publican principles. 

Let  us,  moreover,  not  make  a  similar 
mistake  to  the  one  here  enacted,  lest  our 
own  wards  go  through  the  horrors  which 
have  so  darkened  the  history  of  the  Black 
and  Brown  republics. 


THE   MADURA   TEMPLES 


BY  J.  S.  CHANDLER,  AUBURNDALE,  MASSACHUSETTS 


THE  last  Hindu  dynasty  that 
reigned  in  South  India  was  the 
Nayaka  line  of  rulers ;  and  the 
greatest  of  the  Nayakars  was  Tirumala, 
who  reigned  from  1623  to  1659.  Al- 
though frequently  engaged  in  wars  and 
expeditions,  he  found  time  to  erect  a  vast 
palace,  construct  an  immense  tank  or 
reservoir,  and  add  great  buildings  to  the 
temple  of  Siva  that  was  the  center  of  the 
city. 

The  temple  had  its  shrines  for  the  god 
and  goddess  and  was  especially  extended 
on  the  god's  side  by  a  porch  of  a  thou- 
sand pillars,  built  by  one  of  Tirumala's 
ancestors. 

The  worship  of  the  temple  combined 
that  of  the  two  gods,  Siva  and  Vishnu, 
symbolized  in  the  marriage  of  Vishnu's 
sister  to  Siva.  The  goddess  then  was 
a  representative  of  Vishnu.  Now  the 
Nayaka  rulers  were  worshippers  of 
Vishnu,  so  when  Tirumala  enlarged  the 
temple  he  strengthened  the  Vishnu  ele- 
ment by  enlarging  the  goddess'  side  of 
the  temple  and  making  it  equal  to  the 
god's  portion. 

Among  other  buildings,  he  constructed 
the  "golden  lily  tank"  and  surrounded  it 
by  pillared  colonnades.  The  walls  are 
covered  with  paintings  of  local  legends, 
including  the  64  miracles  that  Siva  is  said 
to  have  worked  in  the  region  of  Madura. 
These  miracles  are  represented  as  sports, 
all  the  god's  acts  being  play  to  him. 

Between  the  tank  and  the  shrine  of  the 
goddess  stands  the  Porch  of  the  Parrots, 
so  called  from  the  screeching  caged  par- 
rots always  kept  in  it.  The  pillars  of  this 
porch  are  monolithic  statues,  of  which 
five  represent  the  five  Pandava  heroes  of 
the  Hindu  epic,  the  Mahabharata.  These 
heroes  are  connected  with  Vishnu  wor- 
ship, another  indication  of  Tirumala's 
connection  with  it. 

The  great  wall  surrounding  the  temple 
incloses  nearly  14  acres.  Outside  the 
wall  and  opposite  to  the  great  pagoda  of 


the  god's  portion,  he  constructed  the 
choultry,  or  porch,  that  bears  his  name. 
It  is  333  feet  long  and  105  feet  wide, 
roofed  with  long  slabs  of  granite,  which 
are  supported  by  four  parallel  rows  of 
124  sculptured  stone  pillars  20  feet  high. 

He  also  commenced,  but  left  unfinished, 
a  royal  pagoda  that  was  intended  to  be 
the  finest  tower  in  southern  India.  The 
door  posts  of  the  gateway  through  the 
completed  story  are  formed  of  monoliths 
over  50  feet  high  and  3  feet  wide,  carved 
with  exquisite  scrolls  of  foliage. 

His  second  structure  was  the  raft  tank, 
or  Teppakulam,  a  reservoir  measuring 
i  ,000  feet  on  the  north  and  south  and 
950  on  the  east  and  west,  faced  all  round 
the  sides  with  cut  granite  and  surmounted 
by  a  handsome  parapet  and  inside  walk 
of  the  same  material.  In  the  middle  of 
the  reservoir  is  a  square  island,  also  faced 
with  cut  granite,  on  which,  among  green 
palms  and  flowering  trees  and  jessamine 
gardens,  is  a  small  white  temple  with  a 
pagoda  tower,  flanked  at  the  four  corners 
of  the  island  with  graceful  miniature 
pagodas. 

Every  January  the  birthday  of  Tiru- 
mala is  celebrated  by  a  feast  of  lights,  in 
which  the  whole  tank  is  illuminated  by 
thousands  of  little  lamps  on  the  inside  of 
the  parapet,  while  the  images  of  the  god 
and  goddess  are  floated  around  the  island 
on  rafts  built  up  like  pagodas. 

The  third  great  work  of  Tirumala  was 
the  vast  palace,  an  arched  and  domed 
structure  with  Saracenic  features,  in 
strong  contrast  to  the  rectangular  forms 
of  the  temple  buildings. 

One  courtyard  indicates  the  magnifi- 
cence of  the  whole.  It  is  252  feet  long 
and  151  feet  wide,  round  which  runs  a 
roofed  arcade  of  great  beauty  supported 
on  tall  stone  pillars  40  feet  in  height, 
connected  by  foliated  brick  arches. 
Round  three  sides  of  this  court,  at  the 
back  of  the  arcade,  runs  a  very  handsome 
line  of  lofty  cloisters  43  feet  wide  and 


THE  MADURA  TEMPLES 


219 


2  2O 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


THE  MADURA  TEMPLES 


GOLDEN  ULY  TANK,  MADURA 


Photo  from  J.   S.  Chandler 


222 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


Photo  from  J.   S.   Chandler 


TEPPAKULAM  OR  RAFT  TANK,  MADURA 


upheld  by  three  parallel  rows  of  pillars 
supporting  arches  some  26  feet  high.  On 
the  fourth  side  of  the  court  the  cloister 
is  much  deeper  and  finer,  being  alto- 
gether 105  feet  wide,  supported  on  five 
rows  of  huge  pillars  and  roofed  with 
three  great  domes.  The  central  and 
largest  dome  measures  60  feet  in  diam- 
eter and  is  73  feet  above  the  ground,  and 
has  in  front  of  it  a  superb  portico,  the  pil- 
lars of  which  are  55  feet  to  the  spring  of 
the  arches. 

Originally  this  domed  cloister  consti- 
tuted the  public  reception  hall,  and  in  its 
center  stood  a  square  building  of  black 
granite  inclosing  a  chamber  made  of 
ivory.  Within  this  chamber,  again,  there 
was  a  jeweled  throne,  on  which  the  king 
was  accustomed  to  take  his  seat  at  the 
great  nine-nights  festival,  surrounded  by 
all  his  banners  or  ensigns  of  royalty,  and 
before  which  all  kings  were  accustomed 
to  do  homage. 

With  this  cloister  as  a  specimen,  we 
can  accept  the  judgment  of  Father  Pro- 
enza,  a  Jesuit  who  wrote  from  Madura 


in  1659,  that  the  colossal  proportions  and 
astonishing  boldness  of  the  royal  palace 
in  Madura  recalled  the  ancient  monu- 
ments of  Thebes. 

THE  BEAR  HUNT 

REPLYING  to  the  numerous  in- 
quiries from  readers  as  to  the  health 
of  Dr  Penrose,  whose  adventure  with  a 
grizzly  was  described  in  the  NATIONAL 
GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE  for  February,  we 
have  much  pleasure  in  saying  that  Dr 
Penrose  has  now  entirely  recovered  his 
former  strength  and  vigor  and  has  al- 
ready made  plans  for  considerable  hunt- 
ing when  the  season  opens. 

In  a  letter  to  this  Magazine  Dr  Pen- 
rose  says  that  one  of  the  most  interesting 
features  of  his  experience  was  the  ab- 
sence of  pain  "when  being  chewed  by  a 
bear.  I  have  read  that  Livingstone  had 
the  same  experience  when  chewed  by  a 
lion.  Men  rarely  suffer  pain  with  sud- 
den traumatism.  What  pain  I  had  came 
on  some  hours  after  the  injury." 


STRAW  SANDALS  OF  JAPAN 


223 


AMONG  HONEST  PEOPLE 

Straw  sandals  (waraji)  for  sale  by  the  roadside  near  Arita,  province  of  Hizen,  Japan. 
Country  people  weave  these  straw  shoes  in  their  leisure  hours,  and  hang  them  from  stakes  by 
the  roadside  for  sale.  The  traveler  helps  himself  to  a  new  pair  of  shoes,  and  drops  the  cop- 
pers in  the  bamboo  cup.  An  old  straw  hat  protects  the  shoemaker's  stock  from  rain.  The 
custom,  formerly  quite  common  in  old  Japan,  is  dying  out,  now  that  the  new  treaties  have  gone 
into  effect,  and  foreigners  are  free  to  travel  everywhere  without  passports.  Photographed  by 
Eliza  R.  Scidcore.  Copyrighted  by  Harper  Bros. 


THE  NATIVE  OYSTERS  OF  THE  WEST 

COAST 


BY  ROBERT  E.  C.  STEARNS 
HONORARY  ASSOCIATE  IN  ZOOLOGY,  U.  S.  NATIONAL  MUSEUM 


IN  reading-  Dr  Smith's  interesting 
article,  "Our  Fish  Immigrants,"  in 
a  recent  number  of  this  Maga- 
zine, his  comments  on  the  native  oysters 
of  the  west  coast  attracted  my  attention. 
When  we  consider  the  fact  that  our 
"natives"  are  absolutely  unpretentious, 
it  would  seem  as  if  criticism  should  be 
tempered  with  mercy. 

Several  species  and  varieties  of  oys- 
ters* inhabit  the  long  stretch  of  shore 
between  Vancouver  Island  and  San 
Diego,  and  doubtless  these  are  found 
for  a  considerable  distance  north  and 
south  of  the  points  indicated,  as  well  as 
in  the  various  bays  and  inlets  connected 
directly  or  indirectly  with  the  sea,  espe- 
cially that  great  body  of  inland  water, 
Puget  Sound.  They  also  occur  on  the 
rocky  margins  of  the  islands  in  the  Santa 
Barbara  Channel  and  elsewhere  on  the 
islands  and  islets  farther  north.  In 
bygone  days  they  furnished  food  for  the 
Indians,  to  a  limited  extent,  as  they  do 
now  to  the  palefaces.  The  abundance 
of  abalones  and  "clams"  of  many  species 
afforded  an  ampler  supply  to  the  "red 
men,"  as  is  proven  by  the  remains  of  clam 
bakes  in  the  mounds  and  shell-heaps 
(Kitchenmiddens)  here  and  there,  silent 
testimony  of  many  old-time  festivals. 

The  principal  or  best-known  native 
oyster  is  O.  htrida,  which  is  the  only 
species  of  commercial  importance.  It  is 
always  purchasable  in  the  San  Francisco 
markets  and  has  been  to  my  knowledge 
for  nearly  or  quite  fifty  years.  At  the 
present  time  it  is  quotable  on  the  retail 
stalls  at  40  to  50  cents  a  hundred,  the 
transplanted  Atlantic  O.  virginica  selling 
at  30  to  40  cents  a  dozen. 

*  Ostrea  lurida,  and  varieties  expansa  and 
laticaudata;  O.  concaphila,  also  O.  amara ;  the 
latter,  however,  belongs  to  a  more  southerly 
fauna. 


The  common  "natives"  of  the  British 
Isles  and  the  general  seaboard  of  north- 
ern Europe,  O.  edulis,  according  to  com- 
mon report,  have  the  same  "coppery 
flavor"  as  O.  lurida;  as  they  usually  oc- 
cur, they  are  about  the  same  size.  In  the 
matter  of  flavor,  it  should  be  borne  in 
mind  that  oysters  of  the  same  species 
vary  considerably  according  to  the 
locality  or  station  where  they  occur.  In 
the  still,  shallow  waters  of  lagoons  they 
are  usually  much  saltier  than  in  the  proxi- 
mate deeper  water  along  the  shores,  that 
are  more  thoroughly  washed  by  the  daily 
tides.  This  was  observed  by  me  when 
on  the  Gulf  coast  of  Florida  in  1869. 
Presumably  the  above,  and  other  factors 
not  so  easily  perceived,  affect  the  flavor 
one  way  or  another. 

The  writing  of  this  paper  revives  the 
memory  of  a  plate  of  "natives"  eaten 
at  Astoria,  in  July,  1882,  on  the  invitation 
of  the  late  Justice  Stephen  J.  Field,  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 
By  a  happy  coincidence  we  were  fellow- 
travelers  on  the  steamer  from  Portland, 
Oregon,  to  San  Francisco.  We  had 
known  each  other  for  twenty  years.  Our 
oyster  feast  was  therefore  akin  to  a  love 
feast,  for  the  Justice  was  a  genial  com- 
panion. He  pronounced  the  oysters 
good,  and  they  were  good;  the  best 
"natives"  I  had  ever  tasted.  Locality,  as 
before  remarked,  is  to  be  considered 
when  we  discuss  flavors. 

This  applies  with  equal  or  greater 
force  to  clams.  Mya  arenaria,  the  com- 
mon long-necked  clam,  or  "mananose," 
occurs  in  clean  sandy  stations ;  also  in 
beds  that  are  more  or  less  muddy,  in 
which  case  the  flavor  is  impaired  and  the 
meats,  as  an  epicure  would  say,  have 
an  "off  taste." 

Our  native  O.  lurida  is  small ;  when 
"shucked,"  about  the  size  of  a  half-dol- 


OYSTERS  OF  THE  WEST  COAST 


225 


lar  piece;  those  from  cultivated  beds 
somewhat  larger. 

Although  California  (San  Francisco 
County)  is  credited  in  the  report  of  the 
United  States  Fish  Commissioner  for 
1904  with  producing  300,000  pounds,  of 
the  value  of  $92,000,  the  principal  supply 
of  that  city  is  derived  from  certain  local- 
ities in  Washington,  which  state,  ac- 
cording to  the  same  report,  exhibits  a 
yield  of  1,069,461  pounds  (equal  to 
152,780  bushels),  valued  at  $279,312, 
while  the  Oregon  statistics  show  only 
6,944  pounds,  worth  $1,488.  It  will  be 
seen  that  the  value  of  "natives''  for  the 
year,  in  the  three  states,  makes  a  total  of 
$372,800 — no  insignificant  sum — being 
more  than  half  the  value  of  the  annual 
output  of  the  Atlantic  or  transplanted 
oyster. 

The  oyster-beds  of  Washington  are 
subject  to  occasional  severe  climatic  con- 
tingencies. 

The  Puget  Sound  oyster-beds  are  at 
Samish  Bay,  in  Skagget  County;  Oyster 
Bay,  in  Mason  County,  and  Mud  Bay, 
Big  Skookum,  and  North  Bay,  in  Thurs- 
ton  County ;  on  the  ocean  coast  of  Wash- 
ington, Shoal  water  or  Willapa  Bay  and 
Toke  Point  cove.  The  Oregon  region 
is  pretty  much  restricted  to  Yaquina  Bay, 
in  Lincoln  County. 

On  the  night  of  January  13,  1907,  the 
concurrence  of  an  unusually  low  tide 
and  a  cold  snap,  the  temperature  having 
fallen  to  18  degrees  below  the  freezing- 
mark,  was  disastrous  to  the  oysters  and 
oyster-beds,  both  native  and  eastern 
plants,  in  many  localities  in  different 
parts  of  Puget  Sound.  The  loss  was 
estimated  at  "several  hundred  thousand 
dollars,"  as  "new  beds  will  have  to  be 
planted,  and  it  will  be  five  years  before 
the  so-called  'Olympia  oyster'  will  again 
be  on  the  market." 

All  along  our  western  coasts  the  tides 
range  very  large  in  January,  running 
above  average  height  and  below  average 
low  water.  Here  (San  Francisco)  they 
ranged  from  7  to  8  feet  in  January.  At 
Olympia  they  must  range  nearly  three 
times  that  (17.2  feet).  In  June  there  is 
a  good  range,  but  not  equal  to  January. 


Of  course  there  are  certain  conditions 
that  decrease  or  increase  the  range. 
Strong  southerly  winds  would  run  the 
low  tide  much  below  the  average.  A 
strong  southerly  gale  on  the  coast  at  San 
Francisco  has  run  the  high  water  to  9.93 
feet,  or  more  than  three  feet  above  the 
average,  as  stated  by  Prof.  George  David- 
son. 

The  low  June  tides  mentioned  by  Pro- 
fessor Davidson,  offer  exceptional  oppor- 
tunities to  the  observer  and  collector  of 
marine  life  along  the  shore.  So  large  an 
area  of  the  sea  bed  is  uncovered  that 
many  forms  not  to  be  had  between  or- 
dinary tides  are  then  obtainable. 

Then,  too,  the  famous  geoduck,*  known 
to  science  as  Panopea  gencrosa,  the 
"Giant  clam  of  Puget  Sound,"  is  ac- 
cessible. It  sometimes  reaches  the  weight 
of  sixteen  pounds.  From  an  epicurian 
point  of  view,  it  holds  the  same  relation 
to  other  edible  mollusks  that  woodcock 
and  Chesapeake  Bay  "canvas-backs"  do 
to  other  birds,  and  "stewed  terrapin"  to 
other  dainties.  The  late  Professor  Baird 
would  have  given  a  thousand  or  two  dol- 
lars to  have  successfully  planted  this  bi- 
valve on  the  Atlantic  'side  of  the  con- 
tinent. 

South  of  the  boundary  line  of  the 
United  States  and  Mexico,  on  the  outer 
shores  of  the  peninsula  of  Lower  Cali- 
fornia, as  well  as  in  the  Gulf  of  Cali- 
fornia, 600  to  700  miles  long,  the  two 
shores  making  a  reach  of  1,200  to  1,400 
miles,  we  have  a  region  which  we  may 
safely  assume  includes  many  localities 
exceptionally  well  adapted  for  oyster 
culture.  The  general  mollusk-fauna  of 
the  Gulf  is  particularly  rich  in  number  of 
species  and  abundance  of  individuals. 

This  fauna  includes  several  species  of 
oysters,  of  which  two  more  are  of  good> 
merchantable  size  and  worthy  of  men- 
tion, as  sooner  or  later  they  will  find  a 
place  in  trade  quotations.  One  of  these 

*  Pronounced  gwo'-duck;  also  known  as 
Glycimeris  gencrosa.  See  my  paper  on  above, 
with  numerous  figures,  in  Bulletin  of  the  U.  S. 
Fish  Commission,  vol.  in,  No.  23,  October  19, 
1883,  and  Annual  Report  of  the  American 
Fisheries  Society,  April  meeting,  188$;  also- 
Forest  and  Stream,  May  28,  1885. 


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THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


masses  three  feet  thick  and  extending  for 
miles.  These  are  found  in  the  Berkeley 
Hills ;  but  elsewhere  in  California. 
Miocene  and  Pliocene  oysters  are  found 
thirteen  inches  long  eight  inches  wide 
and  six  inches  thick.  Alas  for  the  de- 
generacy of  their  descendants,  the 
modern  California  oyster.  And  yet,  upon 
second  thought,  there  may  be  nothing  to 
regret.  It  may  be  that  in  the  gradual 
decrease  in  size  the  flavor  has  been  cor- 
respondingly intensified.  It  may  be  that 
what  was  then  diffused  through  a  great 
mass  of  flesh,  and  therefore  greatly 
diluted,  was  all  conserved  and  concen- 
trated into  the  exquisite  piquancy  char- 
acteristic of  the  little  California  oyster  of 
the  present  day.  If  so  we  are  consoled." 

TOPOGRAPHIC  MAPS  ISSUED  BY 
THE  GEOLOGICAL  SURVEY  IN 
1907. 


closely  resembles  the  Atlantic  O.  vir- 
ginica,  and  was  so  referred  to  as  long  ago 
as  1863  by  Dr.  P.  P.  Carpenter  in  his  list 
of  west  coast  shells,*  and  O.  iridescent, 
of  somewhat  darker  semi-nacre.  There 
are  many  examples  of  these  in  the  Na- 
tional Museum.  The  first  of  the  above 
was  collected  in  1850,  or  about  that  time, 
at  La  Paz,  by  Major  Rich,  of  the  U.  S. 
Army,  and  is  further  credited  to  Marga- 
rita Bay,  on  the  outer  shore  of  the 
peninsula  (Xantus  Collection,  1860). 

As  many  as  forty  years  ago  the  im- 
portation of  these  Gulf  oysters  was  at- 
tempted by  San  Francisco  parties.  The 
enterprise  failed  for  some  reason — pre- 
sumably, uncertainty  of  transportation 
and  other  requisite  facilities.  With  quick 
service  by  railroad,  which  is  certain  to 
come  before  many  years,  and  the  neces- 
sary ice  plant  or  refrigerator  cars, 
Ostrea-culture  in  the  Gulf  of  California 

will   sooner  or  later  be  a  profitable  in-  The  new  topographic  maps  published  by  the 

,                     ,.                     ,          .  y    .     .  United  States  Geological  Survey  in  1907  com- 

dustry,  as  the  general  region  is  immune  prise  104  sheets  and  cover  areas  in  32  states 

from  some  of  the  perils  that  are  so  dis-  and  2  territories,  as  shown  by  the  following 

couraging  to  enterprises  of  this  kind  in  lists.    (Address  Director  U.  S.  Geological  Sur- 

more  northerly  latitudes,  for  natural  in-  vey>  Washington,  D.  C.) 
crease  could  be  safelv  counted  upon. 

For  a  self-perpetuating  stock  for  the  Alab-a;;                             l^TSg^BSl 

northern  waters,  as  long  ago  as  1886,  at  DO Leeds 

the    request   of    Professor    Baird,    I    an-     Alaska  Casadepaga 

swcred    a    letter    addressed    to    him    by  Do ..Solomon 

parties   in   San    Francisco,   and    recom-  Ariz°™  ••                               ' '  Fort  SkDowen 

mended  experimenting  with  some  edible  rj0                                                  Sacaton 

species  from  Japan,  as  being  more  likely  Do Vishnu 

to   propagate   than   any    species    from   a     California  Colnsa 

more   southerlv   source,    temperature    of  £° Davisyille 

. j-      ,       /TV,  .  i-ii  Do Dnnnjffan 

waters  considered.     This  very  desirable  Do                                                 Holtville 

'experiment  remains  to  be  tried.  Do!  . ...  '.  '.  ' ...... '. '. '. '. '. '. '. '. '.  .'.Indian  Valley 

In  writing  of  the  Geologic  age  of  the  Do Mount  Whitney 

region    about    Berkeley,   the    late   Prof.  Do Olancha 

Joseph  Le  Contet  said:  "Oysters,  such  gj  ;                                       '.Woodland 

as  would  astonish  a  latter-day  California,  DO Yosemite  Valley 

existed  in  such  numbers  that  they  formed     Colorado  Mount  Olympus 

great  oyster-banks.     Their  agglomerated  D? v;  v ; San  Crjstol?al 

shells,  each  shell  five  or  six  inches  long     Geor^a  ^Tafbonon 

.and    three    to    four    inches    wide    form  Idaho-Montana'. '. .'.'.'.'.'.' . Creur  d'Alene  Special 

Illinois Belleville 

*  Report    to    the    British    Association,    1863  Do Eldorado 

(pp.  542  and  621) ,  Smithsonian  Miscellaneous  Do Mahomet 

Collections,  No.  252.     Washington,  December,  Do Springfield 

1872.  Illinois-Indiana-Kentucky New  Haven 

t  "A     Berkeley    Year,"     &c.      Published     in      Iowa Decorah 

Berkeley,. California,  in  1898.  Do Des  Moines 


GEOLOGICAL  SURVEY  TOPOGRAPHIC  MAPS         227 


Kentucky Louisville 

Kentucky-Indiana-Illinois New  Haven 

Maine  The  Forks 

Maryland    Laurel 

Do Relay 

Michigan Marquette 

Do Marquette  Special 

Montana   Kintla  Lakes 

Montana-Idaho Coeur  d'Alene  Special 

Nebraska   Nebraska  City 

Nevada  Ely  Special 

New  Hampshire Sunapee 

New  Jersey-Pennsylvania  Trenton 

New  York   Eden 

Do Lake  Pleasant 

Do Massena 

Do Piseco  Lake 

Do Port  Leyden 

Do Sangerfield 

Do Tupper  Lake 

Do Winfield 

North  Carolina Beckford 

North  Carolina-South  Carolina Charlotte 

Do Cowee 

Do Saluda 

North  Dakota Bismarck 

Do Wyndmere 

Ohio   Arlington 

Do Blanchester 

Do Bluffton 

Do Bristolville 

Do Brookville 

Do Dayton 

Do Garrettsville 

Do Greenville 

Do Jefferson 

Do London 

Do Mentor 

Do South  Charleston 

Do Upper  Sandusky 

Do West  Manchester 

Do Zaleski 

Ohio-Pennsylvania  Andover 

Do Kinsman 

Oklahoma Chandler 

Pennsylvania Claysville 

Do Greensburg 

Do Honeybrook 

Do Millerstown 

Do Neshannock 

Do New  Bloomfield 

Do Pittsburg 

Pennsylvania-Ohio   Andover 

Do Kinsman 

South  Carolina  ...  .  Sharon 


South  Carolina-North  Carolina Charlotte 

Do Cowee 

Do Saluda 

South  Dakota Belle  Fourche 

Do Elk  Point 

Do Redwater 

Utah  Cottonwood  Special 

Do Frisco  Special 

Do Iron  Springs  Special 

Utah- Wyoming  Gilbert  Peak 

Virginia Hampton 

Do Norfolk  Special 

Do Yorktown 

Washington Elaine 

Do Mount  Adams 

West  Virginia Arnoldsburg 

Do Belington 

Do Elizabeth 

Do Harrisville 

Do Holbrook 

Do Kingwood 

Do Ripley 

Do Spencer 

Do Thornton 

Wisconsin Evansville  (resurvey) 

Do Sun  Prairie 

Do Geneva-Racine 

Wyoming Kirwin 

Do Younts  Peak 

Lettering  and  conventional  signs. 

Four  of  the  maps  listed  above^the  Coeur 
d'Alene  Special  (Idaho-Mont.),  the  Geneva- 
Racine  (Wis.),  the  Vishnu  (Ariz.),  and  the 
Yosemite  Valley  (Cal.) — are  much  larger  than 
the  regular  atlas  sheets  of  the  Survey  and  are 
sold  at  10  cents  each.  The  other  sheets  are  of 
standard  size — 16^2  by  20  inches — and  are  sold 
at  5  cents  each  in  lots  of  less  than  100;  the 
wholesale  rate  for  the  standard  sheets  is  $3  a 
hundred. 

Much  of  the  work  represented  by  these 
maps  was  done  by  cooperation  between  state 
surveys  and  the  National  Survey.  California, 
Ohio,  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  West 
Virginia  make  generous  appropriations  for 
work  of  this  kind.  Other  states  cooperating 
are  Illinois,  Kentucky,  Maine,  Maryland, 
Michigan,  North  Carolina,  and  Oklahoma.  In 
addition  to  those  listed,  maps  of  Sacramento 
Valley,  Cal.,  from  A  to  N,  on  a  scale  of 
1 124000,  sold  at  40  cents  each,  were  published 
in  cooperation  with  the  state.  These  are  photo- 
lithographs  prepared  from  the  same  base  from 
which  the  regular  sheets  are  made. 


228          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


CROSSING  A  Swiss  LAKE 


Photo  from  Mrs  Gardiner  Greene  Hubbard 
CROSSING  A  SWISS  LAKE 


230          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


Photo  by  H.  D.  Stolesburg,  Royal  Geographical  Journal,  I^ondon 

"PADAUNG"  WOMAN  AND  CHILD,  SOUTH  SHAN  STATES,  BURMA 


NATIONAL    GEOGRAPHIC     SOCIETY 

PROGRAM  OF  MEETINGS  FOR  FEBRUARY  AND 
MARCH 

All  meetings  will  be  held  at  the  National  Rifles' 
Armory 

Friday,  February  21 — "Persia,  Past  and  Pres- 
ent," by  Dr  A.  V.  Williams  Jackson,  of  Co- 
lumbia University.  Illustrated  with  unusual 
pictures  taken  by  Professor  Jackson  on  exten- 
sive journeys  through  the  ancient  kingdom. 

Friday,  February  28 — "Holland's  War  with 
the  Sea,"  by  Prof.  James  Howard  Gore,  George 
Washington  University.  The  romantic  and 
picturesque  in  Holland's  national  life  will  be 
described  by  Professor  Gore, ,  ancf  illustrated 
with  lantern  slides. 

Friday,  March  6 — "The  Missions  of  Califor- 


nia," by  Hon.  Joseph  R.  Knowland,  M.  C.  from 
California.  Illustrated. 

Friday,  March  13 — "Our  Immigrants,"  by 
United  States  Senator  Dillingham,  of  Vermont. 
Illustrated. 

Friday,  March  20 — "Reclaiming  the  West," 
by  Mr  C.  J.  Blanchard,  U.  S.  Reclamation 
Service.  Mr  Blanchard  will  describe  the  open- 
ing to  settlement  of  the  lands  irrigated  by  the 
great  government  works.  Illustrated. 

Friday,  March  27 — "The  Physical  Geography 
of  the  Sea,"  by  Rear  Admiral  Colby  M.  Ches- 
ter, U.  S.  Navy.  Illustrated  with  moving  pic- 
tures and  lantern  slides. 

Friday,  April  3 — "Cathedrals,  Mosques,  and 
Temples  of  the  World,"  by  Hon.  O.  P.  Austin, 
Chief  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Statistics.  Illustrated 
with  moving  pictures  and  lantern  slides.  (Last 
lecture  of  the  season.) 


VOL.  XIX,  No.  4 


WASHINGTON 


APRIL,  1908 


— D 


TH 

AT: 

D 


ALONG   THE   OLD   INCA   HIGHWAY 

BY  HARRIET  CHALMERS  ADAMS 
With  photographs  by  the  author 


ON  a  June  morning  a  season  or  two 
ago,  we  started  out  from  Sicuani, 
then  the  terminus  of  the  South- 
ern Railway  of  Peru,  for  Cuzco,  ancient 
capital  of  the  Incas.  We  had  decided  not 
to  engage  passage  on  the  regular  stage 
coach  which  connects  Sicuani  with  Cuzco, 
but  to  journey  instead  by  private  vehicle, 
that  we  might  loiter  by  the  wayside  to 
study  the  Quichuas,  the  remnant  of  a 
once  mighty  people  who  prospered  in  this 
highland  country.  Remembering  the 
Spanish  proverb,  "If  you  can't  get  what 
you  like,  like  what  you  get,"  I  pretended 
to  be  quite  enthusiastic  over  our  equi- 
page, which  consisted  of  a  rickety  cart 
holding  the  two  of  us  and  our  cholo 
driver,  two  slow  but  well-meaning  mules 
in  the  lead.  The  Peruvian  cholo  is  of 
mixed  Indian  and  Spanish  blood  and  con- 
siders himself  in  every  way  superior  to 
the  pure-blooded  Quichua. 

From  Sicuani  we  traveled  over  the  old 
Inca  highway,  worn  by  the  feet  of  many 
pilgrims,  of  many  llama  trains,  in  the 
days  before  the  Spanish  conquest.  The 
home  life  in  these  bolsones,  the  fertile 
mountain  basins  which  are  linked  with 
the  valley  of  Cuzco,  is  little  changed  since 
the  long  ago.  The  people  are  now  of 
Roman  Catholic  faith  and  a  church  tower 
marks  the  site  of  each  village,  oxen  and 
other  domestic  animals  have  been  intro- 


duced ;  but  the  crude  huts,  the  homespun 
dress,  the  primitive  method  of  agricul- 
ture, belong  to  centuries  long  past. 

We  were  ro  fortunate  as  to  make  this 
journey  at  harvesting  time,  and  while 
farming  in  the  World's  Roof  Garden  isn't 
exactly  "up  to  date,"  it  is  most  inter- 
esting to  the  traveler.  In  threshing  the 
grain  the  men  drive  the  oxen  about  in  a 
circle,  encouraging  the  poor  animals  by 
yanking  their  tails;  in  winnowing,  the 
grain  and  chaff  are  blown  out  through  a 
horn,  that  the  wind  may  separate  them. 
A  crooked  stick  is  used  in  plowing,  but 
what  the  Quichua  farmer  lacks  in  mod- 
ern machinery  he  makes  up  in  the  deco- 
rative head-dress  of  his  oxen. 

In  costume  these  mountaineers  are 
most  picturesque.  Throughout  the  An- 
dean highlands  the  headcovering  changes 
with  the  locality,  and  on  the  road  to 
Cuzco  it  consists  of  a  large,  flat  hctt, 
usually  of  homespun,  dyed  bright  blue  or 
red,  bedecked  with  tinsel  (a  modern  in- 
novation). Both  men  and  women  wear 
this  headgear.  The  men  are  attired  in 
knee-breeches,  short  jackets,  and  pon- 
chos; the  women  in  short  skirts  and  low- 
cut  blouses.  They  are  bare-legged  and 
seem  scantily  clad  at  an  altitude  of  11,000 
feet  above  the  sea. 

In  the  villages  through  which  we  passed 
the  huts  were  built  of  mud  and  thatch, 


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FOOT  TRAVELERS 
INCA  BURIAL  TOMB  AND  ANDEAN  HUT  OF  MUD  AND  THATCH 


ALONG  THE  OLD  INCA  HIGHWAY 


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QUICHUA  FARMERS 


PLOWING  AT  AN  ELEVATION  OF   1 1  ,OOO  FEET 


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I      w 


1° 

s  ^ 

3  E 


W  w 

O    «: 

o  a 


W 

u 

c* 
w 

W 

Sf 
w 
^ 


ALONG  THE  OLD  INCA  HIGHWAY 


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GATHERING 


and  untanned  hides  covered  the  door- 
ways; within  there  were  no  furnishings 
save  the  few  crude  cooking  utensils.  The 
head  of  the  household  evidently  "slept  on 
the  mat  with  the  dog  and  the  cat,  the 
rest  of  the  family  close  by,"  no  better 
cared  for  than  his  llamas  in  the  nearby 
corral. 

The  graceful  llamas,  little  cousins  to 
the  camel,  are  closely  associated  with  my 
remembrance  of  the  Andean  highlanders. 
Domesticated  long  ago,  they  are  the  best 
friends  of  the  mountaineers,  furnishing 
wool  for  clothing,  fuel,  bearing  burdens 
patiently,  calling  for  little  or  no  care, 
as  they  graze  by  the  wayside  and  re- 
quire little  water.  As  in  the  days  of  Ata- 
hulpa,  so  today  a  train  of  laden  llamas 
slowly  journeys  toward  Cuzco;  in  the 
rear  a  Quichua  boy  and  girl,  both  spin- 
ning as  they  walk,  using  primitive  imple- 
ments, a  baby  strapped  to  the  young 
mother's  back.  The  llamas  turn  their 


FOR  THE:  HOME: 

heads  quickly  to  right  and  left,  their 
curious  eyes  ever  shifting;  the  young 
man  and  woman  constantly  chew  the 
dried  coca  leaf,  which  deadens  hunger, 
cold,  and  fatigue,  and  watch  for  the  flag 
which  cheers,  which  waves  triumphant 
on  this  ancient  highway — the  little,  white 
flag  which  marks  a  hut  where  chicha  is 
sold. 

Chicha  is  the  Peruvian  drink  made 
from  fermented  corn.  It  is  highly  intox- 
icating and  its  victims  are  legion  on 
fiesta  days.  There  are,  as  I  remember, 
about  seventy  feast  days  of  the  Church 
celebrated  annually  in  Peru,  and  the 
cholos  and  Quichuas  mark  these  days  less 
by  religious  fervor  than  by  an  all  con- 
suming passion  for  chicha.  We  decided 
that  chicha  was  an  acquired  taste;  it  is 
as  bitter  as  the  Mexican  pulque.  Another 
Peruvian  drink  is  aguadiente,  a  strong 
native  brandy. 

The  fare  of  the  highlanders  is  meager, 


ALONG  THE  OLD  INCA  HIGHWAY 


239 


REAR  GUARD  OF  A  LLAMA  TRAIN 


BEGGARS 


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A  FULL-BLOODED  QUICHUA,  DESCENDANT  OF  A  PEOPLE  WHO  LAID  THESE  GREAT  STONES 


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FARMING  IN   THE  WORLD  S  ROOF   GARDEN 


consisting  of  maize,  chuno,  the  frozen 
potato,  cholona,  dried  goat  or  mutton, 
and  quinua,  a  cereal  which  thrives  at  high 
altitudes.  We  passed  many  little  fields 
brightened  by  the  reddening  quinua,  its 
tall  stalks  waving  like  corn.  The  valleys 
through  which  we  journeyed  were  nar- 
row, bordered  on  either  side  by  steep 
mountain  walls.  High  up  on  the  hill- 
sides were  cultivated  patches,  little  farms 
which  seemed  in  danger  of  falling  over 
into  the  swiftly  flowing  river  below.  This 
river  is  the  Vilcanota  (we  had  seen  its 
birth  back  in  the  snows  at  the  Pass  of 
La  Raya)  ;  beyond  Cuzco  it  is  called  the 
Yucay ;  farther  on,  the  Ucayali,  and  it  is 
the  longest  formative  branch  of  the  Ama- 
zon. Our  road  followed  the  river's  wind- 
ings and  crossed  bridges  laid  by  the  Colo- 
nial Spaniards  on  old  Inca  foundations. 
Our  first  view  of  these  massive  stones 
was  at  the  ruins  of  the  Temple  of  Vira- 
cocha,  about  half  a  mile  from  the  high- 
way. One  great  wall  alone  remains  of 
this  once  splendid  edifice,  said  to  have 
been  erected  by  the  eighth  Inca  ruler. 
We  saw  many  lesser  ruins  of  the  ancients 
before  reaching  Cuzco — forts,  evidently, 
guarding  the  approach  to  the  capital. 


We  managed  to  pick  up  a  few  words 
of  the  Quichua  language,  which  we  had 
need  of  later  on  trips  beyond  Cuzco, 
where  little  or  no  Spanish  is  spoken.  On 
this  main  highway  Spanish  is  now  the 
universal  tongue,  although  the  Quichuas 
cling  to  their  own  expressive  language, 
and  their  sullen  demeanor  shows  their 
hatred  for  the  white  man  and  the  half- 
breed.  They  speak  Spanish  when  they 
must,  but  most  ungraciously. 

My  pleasantest  recollection  of  this 
drive  of  two  days  is  of  the  early  evening, 
when  we  heard  the  shepherds  playing  on 
their  pipes.  From  the  hillsides  where  the 
flocks  grazed  came  the  clear  notes,  monot- 
onous but  sweet,  and  the  music  carried 
me  back  to  Peru's  olden  days.  As  we 
drove  through  these  Andean  valleys, 
past  villages  and  haciendas,  each  church 
tower,  each  touch  of  a  more  modern  civil- 
ization, reminded  me  of  one  of  the  saddest 
histories  ever  told,  of  the  downfall  and 
slavery  of  a  once  contented  and  prosper- 
ous people,  now  broken  in  spirit,  degen- 
erated;  yet  in  their  hearts  there  remains 
a  love  for  their  lost  idols,  a  reverence  for 
their  old  religion.  When  we  at  last 
reached  the  heights  overlooking  Cuzco 


ALONG  THE  OLD  INCA  HIGHWAY 


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the  sunset  glow  was  gilding  its  many 
towers,  and  near  us  on  a  worn  spot  on 
the  highway  stood  a  group  of  poorly 
clothed  Quichuas,  with  sad,  unenlight- 
ened faces,  forgetting  their  cruel  Span- 


ish masters,  forgetting  their  Church  and 
their  Cross.  With  heads  bowed  and  un- 
covered, they  stood  as  in  the  long  ago, 
greeting  their  beloved  capital — Cuzco, 
Sacred  City  of  the  Sun. 


HOME-MAKING   BY   THE   GOVERNMENT 

An  Account  of  the  Eleven  Immense  Irrigating 
Projects  to  be  Opened  in   1908 

BY  C.  J.  BLANCHARD 

STATISTICIAN,  U.  S.  RECLAMATION  SERVICE 


WE  have  come  upon  a  time  in  our 
national  life  when  the  ques- 
tion of  providing  homes  for 
our  people  bulks  larger  than  ever  before. 
The  time  is  not  far  distant  when  it  will 
become  acute.  The  rapid  narrowing  of 
the  limits  of  our  unoccupied  public  do- 
main and  the  tremendous  increase  in  land 
values  in  all  the  settled  sections  of  the 
United  States'  render  it  yearly  more  dim- 
cult  for  the  man  of  small  means  to  get  a 
foothold  on  the  land.  There  is  congestion 
today  in  many  of  our  cities,  and  the  men- 
ace of  a  great  population  underfed  and 
poorly  housed  looms  more  darkly  each 
year.  So  great  is  the  land  hunger  that 
already  a  quarter  of  a  million  families, 
comprising  some  of  the  best  blood  of  the 
nation,  have  expatriated  themselves  and 
taken  up  new  homes  under  a  foreign  flag. 
What  is  the  use  of  preaching  love  of  home 
and  country  when  we  offer  nothing  but 
crowded  tenements  to  the  toiler  who 
seeks  to  earn  a  roof  over  his  family  ? 

Our  nation's  greatness  has  its  founda- 
tions in  the  home  of  the  man  whose  feet 
are  firmly  planted  upon  his  own  land. 
There  is  no  national  stability  in  a  citizen- 
ship born  and  reared  in  tenements.  Pa- 
triotism, loyalty,  and  civic  pride  are  not 
bred  and  fostered  in  the  crowded  cen- 
ters of  population.  The  destiny  of  the 
nation  is  foreshadowed  in  the  provisions 


made  for  the  prosperity  and  contentment 
of  its  citizens.  An  assurance  that  the 
great  mass  of  our  people  shall  reside  in 
homes  of  their  own  is  an  insurance  that 
our  future  will  be  one  of  stability  and 
progress. 

The  home-making  instinct  is  a  well- 
developed  trait  in  American  character. 
Our  forefathers  who  landed  on  the  bleak 
and  inhospitable  shores  of  New  England, 
their  descendants,  the  pioneers  who  con- 
quered the  middle  West,  and  the  Argo- 
nauts of  this  generation  who  crossed  the 
trackless  plains  were  impelled  by  this  in- 
stinct more  than  by  the  love  of  adventure 
or  the  lure  of  gold  to  wander  forth  into 
strange  lands. 

From  the  very  inception  of  our  Re- 
public our  legislators  have  recognized 
that  it  was  a  national  duty  to  render  the 
acquirement  of  homes  as  easy  as  pos- 
sible. This  recognition  was  shown  in 
liberal  grants  to  the  defenders  of  the 
country  in  Revolutionary  times,  and  later 
in  the  beneficent  homestead  law  which 
opened  to  settlement  the  Mississippi  Val- 
ley. It  has  been  recognized  since  by  the 
enactment  of  other  statutes  making  easy 
the  acquirement  of  public  domain.  Areas 
greater  in  extent  than  many  of  the 
original  states  have  been  donated  for  the 
purpose  of  making  habitable  the  unutil- 
ized lands  of  the  people.  At  one  time  the 


An  address  to  the  National  Geographic  Society,  March  13,  1908. 


HOME-MAKING  BY  THE  GOVERNMENT 


251 


PUMPING  BARGE;  OF  THE  u.  s.  RECLAMATION  SERVICE:  WILUSTON 

DAKOTA   (SEE  PAGE  252) 


PROJECT,   NORTH 


He  farmed  but  little,  and  from  the  nature 
of  his  business  and  the  methods  of  oper- 
ation, as  a  rule,  wanted  no  neighbors. 

The  real  home-builder,  who  undertook 
to  subdue  the  plains  to  agriculture,  en- 
countered many  difficulties.  In  many 
sections  there  was  no  timber  and  he  was 
forced  to  build  his  house  of  sod  or  adobe. 
He  found  the  streams  were  not  depend- 
able ;  they  were  dry  in  summer,  when 
water  was  most  needed.  Nature,  how- 
ever, provided  an  inexhaustible  supply  of 
underground  water,  which  the  farmer 
pumped  into  small  reservoirs  and  then 
led  to  his  garden  and  orchard  and  sup- 
plied his  live  stock.  He  harnessed  the 
wind,  which  blows  almost  constantly  on 
the  prairies,  and  made  it  a  cheap  and 
useful  servant  for  his  work. 

Within  the  past  1 5  years  there  has  been 
an  awakening  to  the  opportunity  which 
lies  in  the  Plains  area,  and  settlements 
have  moved  westward  with  such  remark- 
able rapidity  that  the  day  of  the  broad, 


252          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


free  range,  with  the  old,  careless,  and 
often  inhuman  methods  of  stock-raising, 
is  about  over.  The  day  of  smaller  flocks 
and  herds,  winter  fed  and  fattened  on 
home-grown  forage,  is  at  hand. 

PROJECTS  IN  NORTH  DAKOTA 

In  the  Great  Plains  area  the  Reclama- 
tion Service  has  in  process  of  construc- 
tion ii  projects  involving  an  expenditure 
of  $18,740,000  and  the  reclamation  of 
500,000  acres.  Several  of  these  projects 
are  unique,  and  in  their  engineering  fea- 
tures are  deserving  of  extended  descrip- 
tion. All  have  reached  a  stage  of  con- 
struction where  water  will  be  available 
this  season,  and  the  hundreds  of  new 
homes  which  dot  the  prairies  show  that 
the  settlers  are  preparing  to  put  it  to  use. 

Three  of  these  projects  are  located  in 
North  Dakota,  in  the  valley  of  the  Mis- 
souri River,  and  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
town  of  Williston.  The  Missouri  River 
at  this  point  is  a  whimsical  stream,  habit- 
ually cutting  its  banks  and  changing  its 
channel,  so  that  the  engineers  find  it  im- 
practicable to  locate  any  permanent  struc- 
ture for  the  diversion  of  water  by  gravity. 

Fortunately  great  beds  of  lignite  were 
discovered  in  the  vicinity  on  public  land, 
and  the  engineers  proposed  that  the  gov- 
ernment should  turn  coal  miner,  mining 
its  own  coal  and  developing  power  there- 
from. A  large  power-house  was  erected 
at  the  mine  and  power  is  now  conveyed 
electrically  to  the  river.  An  exceedingly 
unique  plan  was  devised  to  overcome  the 
eccentricities  of  the  Missouri.  The 
pumps  are  placed  on  floating  barges, 
which  will  accommodate  themselves  to 
changes  in  the  river  channel  and  in  the 
water  level.  The  water  is  delivered 
through  pipes  with  flexible  joints  into 
reservoirs,  and  from  these  basins  is 
pumped  into  the  canals.  These  reser- 
voirs serve  to  settle  the  silt,  large  quan- 
tities of  which  are  carried  in  solution  by 
the  Missouri  River.  The  central  plant, 
near  Williston,  supplies  power  to  two  of 
these  projects. 

A  heavy  influx  of  settlers  is  anticipated 
this  spring  to  take  up  the  lands  to  be  irri- 
gated. Diversified  and  intensive  farm- 


ing by  irrigation  will  bring  about  a  great 
change  in  the  agricultural  methods  now 
in  vogue  in  this  section.  The  cultivation 
of  alfalfa,  sugar-beets,  vegetables,  and 
such  fruits  as  apples,  cherries,  grapes, 
melons,  and  berries  of  all  kinds,  for  which 
this  region  is  adapted,  will  doubtless  cre- 
ate a  prosperous  community  here  in  a  few 
years.  This  project  is  on  the  Great 
Northern  Railway. 

LOWER  YELLOWSTONE  PROJECT 

Not  far  from  here,  in  the  Lower  Yel- 
lowstone Valley,  and  embracing  66,000 
acres  of  land  in  Montana  and  North 
Dakota,  is  the  Lower  Yellowstone  pro- 
ject. The  settlement  of  this  large  area 
has  been  progressing  rapidly,  and  aside 
from  a  few  thousand  acres  of  railroad 
lands,  which  will  be  sold  this  spring, 
about  all  the  land  is  filed  upon.  The 
works  include  a  timber-covered,  rock- 
filled  dam  700  feet  long,  headworks  of 
concrete,  and  a  huge  canal  67  miles  long 
and  several  hundred  miles  of  laterals  and 
small  ditches. 

HUNTLEY  PROJECT,  MONTANA 

Up  the  Yellowstone  about  200  miles  is 
the  Huntley  project,  which  was  completed 
last  June.  It  is  located  12  miles  east  of 
Billings,  Montana,  and  embraces  30,000 
acres  of  land,  having  a  general  elevation 
of  3,000  feet  above  sea  level.  The  irri- 
gable area  has  been  divided  into  589 
farms  of  40  acres  each,  and  about  half  of 
these  have  already  been  filed  upon.  The 
project  offers  unusual  advantages  for  the 
practical  farmer  of  small  means  to  secure 
a  good  home,  whereon  by  his  own  in- 
dustry he  can  secure  a  comfortable  living. 
The  climate  here  is  delightful  and  the  soil 
of  exceptional  fertility,  producing  boun- 
tiful crops  when  watered.  Cereals  and 
alfalfa  are  the  principal  crops,  although 
apples,  small  fruits,  and  garden  vege- 
tables do  well.  On  account  of  the  fine 
range  country  surrounding  the  project, 
alfalfa  will  always  be  a  staple  product. 
It  produces  about  five  tons  to  the  acre  at 
present  and  is  worth  $5  a  ton  in  the  stack. 
A  sugar-beet  factory  is  now  in  operation 
at  Billings  and  the  farmers  are  increasing; 


HOME-MAKING  BY  THE  GOVERNMENT 


253 


their  acreage  in  this  crop,  as  it  is  very 
profitable.  Unusual  facilities  for  trans- 
porting crops  to  the  large  markets  are 
afforded  by  two  lines  of  transcontinental 
railroads,  the  Northern  Pacific  and  the 
Chicago,  Burlington  and  Quincy,  which 
traverse  this  tract.  No  farm  is  more  than 
three  miles  from  a  shipping  point.  There 
are  eight  new  towns  on  this  project  at 
intervals  of  about  5  miles  along  the  two 
lines  of  railroad,  and  town  lots  are  now 
offered  for  sale  by  the  government  at 
reasonable  prices. 

SUN    RIVER    PROJECT,    MONTANA 

Xot  far  from  the  thriving  city  of  Great 
Falls,  Montana,  the  first  unit  of  the  Sun 
River  project  will  be  opened  to  settlers  on 
May  7.  This  project,  when  completed, 
will  be  one  of  the  largest  undertaken  by 
the  government,  irrigating  nearly  256,000 
acres,  or  considerably  more  than  the  cul- 
tivated acreage  of  Rhode  Island.  An  in- 
teresting feature  in  connection  with  this 
project  is  the  proposition  of  the  engineers 
to  augment  the  water  supply  by  taking 
water  from  the  streams  now  flowing  into 
the  Pacific  Ocean  through  a  gap  in  the 
continental  divide  to  a  watershed  which 
drains  into  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  The  Sun 
River  Valley  proper  is  about  70  miles 
long  and  from  I  to  5  miles  wide.  The 
unit  to  be  opened  in  Mav  is  the  abandoned 
Fort  Shaw  Military  Reservation,  which 
contains  about  200  8o-acre  farms. 

On  this  project  the  rural  settlement 
plan  of  the  Reclamation  Service  will  be 
carried  out,  and  there  will  be  a  village 
about  every  six  miles.  The  soil  is  a 
warm,  sandy  loam  covered  with  buffalo 
grass,  gramma,  and  wheat  grass.  All 
the  crops  which  can  be  grown  in  the 
northern  countries  can  be  raised  in  this 
section.  The  principal  crops  will  be 
largely  alfalfa,  sugar-beets,  and  potatoes. 

MILK   RIVER   PROJECT,    MONTANA 

In  northern  Montana  the  Milk  River 
project,  by  reason  of  the  international 
character  of  the  streams  to  be  diverted, 
has  attracted  a  great  deal  of  attention. 
The  irrigable  area  in  the  valley  of  Milk 
River  is  greater  than  the  water  supply, 


and  the  engineers  propose  to  store  water 
now  flowing  into  Hudson  Bay  to  aug- 
ment the  insufficient  flow  of  Milk  River,, 
a  tributary  of  the  Missouri.  Nearly 
250,000  acres  are  involved  in  this  project. 
The  valley  has  a  soil  of  sandy  loam  wett 
adapted  to  raising  all  the  products  of  the 
north  temperate  zone.  The  construction 
of  the  necessary  dams  and  canals  will 
require  several  years.  Milk  River  Val- 
ley is  tributary  to  the  Great  Northern- 
Railroad. 

SI1OSIIONIC   PROJECT,   WYOMING 

On  the  northern  border  of  Wyoming,, 
in  a  region  of  exceedingly  rough  country, 
the  government  is  building  the  highest 
masonry  dam  in  the  world.  This  struc- 
ture, which  will  rise  310  feet  above 
its  foundation,  blocks  a  very  narrow 
gorge.  It  will  be  108  feet  thick  on  the 
bottom  and  only  175  feet  long  on  top. 
We  might  get  a  better  conception  of  the 
enormous  height  of  this  dam  if  we  com- 
pared it  with  the  height  of  some  familiar 
building.  Take,  for  instance,  the  Flatiron- 
building,  in  New  York.  Placed  side  by 
side,  the  Shoshone  dam  would  rise  one 
story  higher. 

The  work  here  is  difficult  and  dan- 
gerous. Workmen  are  lowered  into  the 
canyon,  the  walls  of  which  are  hun- 
dreds of  feet  high,  and,  with  ropes  about 
their  bodies  as  they  work,  put  in  the  drill 
holes  for  blasting.  Before  work  could 
be  begun  on  this  structure  it  was  neces- 
sary for  the  Reclamation  Service  to  build 
a  road  8  miles  in  length  to  get  into  the 
canyon.  This  road  was  cut  for  the  most 
of  the  distance  from  the  solid  walls  of 
rock.  The  dam  will  create  behind  it  the 
largest  lake  in  the  State  of  Wyoming,, 
with  a  superficial  area  of  10  square  miles 
and  an  average  depth  of  7°  feet- 

Twelve  miles  below  the  Shoshone  dam 
a  diversion  dam  is  being  built  in  the  river 
which  will  turn  the  stream  into  a  tunnel 
3*4  miles  in  length,  connected  at  the  other 
end  by  a  large  canal  which  carries  the 
water  out  upon  100,000  acres  of  choice 
land.  A  portion  of  this  area  will  be 
watered  next  spring,  and  is  opened  to 
settlement  at  this  time  to  bona  fide  citi- 


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\ 


HOME-MAKING  BY  THE  GOVERNMENT 


255 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


ix  GUNNISON  CANYON:  UNCOMPAHGRE  PROJECT,  COLORADO  (SEE  PAGE  263) 


HOME-MAKING  BY  THE  GOVERNMENT 


257 


zens  of  the  United  States.  The  irrigable 
lands  are  reached  by  the  Chicago,  Bur- 
lington and  Quincy  Railway. 

NORTH    PLATTE    PROJECT 

In  southern  Wyoming  another  large 
work  is  well  under  way.  The  structure 
known  as  the  Pathfinder  dam  is  being 
erected  in  a  narrow  canyon  of  the  North 
Platte  River  at  the  identical  point  where 
General  John  C.  Fremont,  the  noted  ex- 
plorer, nearly  lost  his  life  while  attempt- 
ing to  get  through  in  a  boat.  This  struc- 
ture will  be  215  feet  high  and  will  create 
an  enormous  reservoir  with  a  storage 
capacity  of  1,025,000  acre-feet,  or  enough 
water  to  cover  1,025,000  acres  a  foot 
deep.  To  better  appreciate  the  quantity 
of  water  in  this  reservoir  it  should  be  un- 
derstood that  it  is  sufficiently  capacious 
to  hold  back  the  greatest  flood  ever 
known  in  this  turbulent  stream.  In  con- 
nection with  this  dam  and  reservoir  the 
government  has  built  a  large  canal  95 
miles  in  length  to  carry  the  waters  onto 
lands  in  Wyoming  and  Nebraska. 
Owing  to  the  rough  country  along  the 
canal  route,  several  large  concrete  via- 
ducts were  constructed  and  for  several 
miles  the  canal  is  lined  with  cement.  The 
irrigable  lands  are  tributary  to  the  Chi- 
cago and  Northwestern,  Chicago,  Bur- 
lington and  Quincy,  and  the  Union  Pa- 
cific Railway  systems. 

BELLE   FOURCHE   PROJECT,    SOUTH    DAKOTA 

Northeast  of  the  Black  Hills,  in  South 
Dakota,  lies  the  beautiful  valley  of  the 
Belle  Fourche,  embracing  several  hun- 
dred thousand  acres  of  exceedingly 
fertile  land.  In  this  valley  the  Reclama- 
tion Service  has  nearly  completed  a  great 
work  for  the  irrigation  of  100,000  acres. 

By  means  of  a  concrete  diversion  dam 
the  entire  flow  of  the  Belle  Fourche  River 
will  be  diverted  into  an  inlet  canal  6l/2 
miles  in  length  and  large  enough  to  carry 
the  minimum  flow  of  the  Potomac  River 
at  Point  of  Rocks.  This  canal  turns  the 
water  into  a  natural  depression  between 
two  hills.  This  depression  is  blocked  by 
one  of  the  largest  earthei.  embankments 
in  the  world,  a  structure  more  than  a 


mile  in  length  and  115  feet  in  maximum 
height.  The  reservoir  thus  formed  has  a 
storage  capacity  of  203,770  acre-feet,  and 
forms  the  largest  lake  in  the  State  of 
South  Dakota. 

Home-seekers  have  been  pouring  into 
this  valley  for  the  last  two  years,  and 
nearly  all  of  the  public  land  is  now  occu- 
pied by  settlers  who  are  awaiting  the 
completion  of  the  works.  The  towns  in 
the  valleys  have  more  than  doubled  in 
population  since  the  work  began.  There 
are  opportunities  for  home-seekers  to  se- 
cure land  from  private  owners  whose 
holdings  are  in  excess  of  the  requirements 
of  the  Reclamation  Act.  The  principal 
markets  for  the  products  of  this  valley 
are  the  mining  towns  in  the  Black  Hills, 
the  Twin  Cities,  also  Omaha  and  Chicago, 
which  are  reached  by  the  Chicago  and 
Northwestern  and  Chicago,  Burlington 
and  Quincy  railways.  Back  of  the  irri- 
gated country  is  a  vast  area  of  public 
lands  which  is  available  for  ranging 
cattle  and  sheep.  The  principal  products 
will  be  alfalfa,  cereals,  vegetables,  and  the 
hardy  fruits. 

GARDEN    CITY    PROJECT,    KANSAS 

In  southwestern  Kansas  the  Garden 
City  Project,  although  embracing  only 
8,000  acres,  is  relatively  one  of  the  im- 
portant government  works  in  the  Plains 
region.  Owing  to  the  numerous  novel 
features  involved  in  its  construction,  the 
project  has  attracted  much  attention.  It 
is  believed  that  the  successful  initiation  of 
this  system  will  encourage  private  capital 
to  take  up  work  in  other  parts  of  the 
Arkansas  Valley  and  elsewhere  on  the 
Great  Plains. 

As  the  Arkansas  River  could  not  be  de- 
pended upon  to  supply  water  to  gravity 
canals,  the  engineers  devised  a  scheme  to 
utilize  the  underflow.  About  300  wells 
were  sunk,  the  combined  length  of  which 
exceeds  4  miles.  These  wells  are  in 
groups  of  12  each  and  vary  from  12  to 
15  inches  in  diameter.  Each  group  will 
be  operated  by  its  own  pumping  plant, 
and  all  pumps  will  be  operated  by  elec- 
tricity generated  in  a  central  power 
station.  The  water  from  the  wells  will  be 


258 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


lifted  into  a  concrete-lined  conduit,  which 
discharges  into  the  main  canal.  During 
the  irrigation  season  this  leviathan  pump- 
ing plant  will  lift  30,000  acre-feet,  or 
about  11,000,000,000  gallons. 

The  value  of  land  in  this  part  of 
Kansas,  in  its  natural  condition,  varies 
from  $5  to  $15  per  acre.  When  re- 
claimed by  irrigation  it  is  easily  worth 
from  $100  to  $150  per  acre.  The  prin- 
cipal crops  are  sugar-beets  and  alfalfa, 
considerable  quantities  of  which  are  al- 
ready under  cultivation.  Apples  and 
melons  are  especially  profitable  crops 
when  irrigated.  This  section  is  tributary 
to  the  Santa  Fe  system. 

NEW  MEXICO  PROJECTS 

There  are  three  national  projects  in  the 
Territory  of  New  Mexico,  two  of  which, 
the  Carlsbad  and  Hondo,  are  practically 
completed  and  will  water  30,000  acres 
this  season. 

The  Hondo  Project  provides  for  diver- 
sion and  storage  of  the  flood  waters  from 
Hondo  River,  a  tributary  of  the  Pecos, 
and  will  reclaim  10,000  acres  of  land  in 
the  vicinity  of  Roswell.  No  public  land 
is  watered  by  this  project,  but  lands  in 
private  ownership  are  for  sale  at  reason- 
able prices. 

The  Carlsbad  Project  is  located  on  the 
Pecos  River,  in  southeastern  New  Mex- 
ico, on  the  Santa  Fe  system.  The  entire 
acreage  is  in  private  ownership,  but  sev- 
eral thousand  acres  are  included  in  ex- 
cess holdings  and  must  be  disposed  of  to 
farmers  who  will  purchase  water-rights 
under  the  government  system.  The  price 
of  land  varies  from  $20  to  $60  per  acre. 

The  climate  is  mild.  In  winter  the 
temperature  during  the  day  is  seldom  be- 
low freezing.  The  summer  temperature 
seldom  goes  above  100  degrees  and  the 
nights  are  always  pleasant. 

The  soil  is  a  light,  sandy  alluvium  and 
very  fertile.  The  chief  crops  in  the  val- 
ley are  peaches,  pears,  apples,  cherries, 
small  fruits,  alfalfa,  cotton,  sweet  pota- 
toes, celery,  and  garden  truck.  Five 
crops  of  alfalfa  are  grown  each  year, 
yielding  a  total  of  5  to  8  tons  per  acre. 
Fruits,  cotton,  and  alfalfa  are  the  most 


profitable  crops,  and  fodder-corn,  caner 
and  milo-maize  yield  good  forage  crops. 
Stock-raising  is  profitable,  owing  to  ex- 
tensive range  lands  to  the  east  and  west. 

There  is  a  good  market  for  horses  and 
mules  at  Carlsbad,  and  hay  is  always  in 
demand  here  and  at  other  points  in  the 
valley.  Cotton,  after  being  ginned,  is- 
shipped  to  Houston  or  Galveston, 
Kansas  City,  Wichita,  El  Paso,  Fort 
Worth,  etc.,  afford  markets  for  all  other 
excess  supplies.  The  Pecos  Valley  is  a 
good  winter  feeding  center  for  range 
stock. 

Cotton  gins,  cotton-seed  oil  and  oil- 
cake factories,  and  canneries  with  ad- 
junct machinery  for  the  manufacure  of 
denatured  alcohol  are  needed  in  the  val- 
ley. There  are  at  present  water-power 
plants  at  Carlsbad  and  at  a  point  five 
miles  below,  and  there  is  room  for  addi- 
tional plants  further  down  stream. 

The  Rio  Grande  Project  involves  the 
construction  of  a  storage  dam  255  feet 
high,  opposite  Eagle,  New  Mexico,  across 
the  Rio  Grande,  which  will  form  a  reser- 
voir 175  feet  deep  at  its  lower  end  and 
40  miles  long,  with  a  storage  capacity  of 
2,000,000  acre-feet,  for  the  irrigation  of 
180,000  acres  of  land  in  New  Mexico, 
Texas,  and  Mexico. 

The  Leasburg  Diversion,  which  is  a 
part  of  the  Rio  Grande  project,  consists 
of  a  low,  6oo-foot  concrete  diversion  damr 
with  pier,  embankment,  and  sluice-gates,, 
head-wier  and  head-gates.  In  connection 
with  the  diversion  dam  6  miles  of  full- 
sized  canal  were  constructed  to  connect 
with  the  old  Las  Cruces  Canal.  Con- 
struction was  begun  November  27,  1906, 
and  water  will  be  supplied  to  10,000  acres 
this  summer.  The  valley  has  splendid 
railroad  facilities  and  contains  many 
thriving  cities  and  towns,  of  which  El 
Paso,  Texas,  is  the  metropolis. 

OUR  INLAND  EMPIRE 

Beyond  the  Rocky  Mountains  lies  the 
true  desert,  a  land  of  mysterious  silence ; 
a  land  of  potential  greatness,  awaiting 
the  magic  kiss  of  canal-borne  water  tO' 
wake  to  teeming  fecundity.  It  is  often 
called  the  inland  empire. 


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259 


RAISING   HOGS  IN  THF,  KLAMATH   VALLEY  I    KLAMATH    PROJECT,  OREGON    (SEE 

PAGE   267) 


In  many  parts  of  it  Nature  has  placed 
in  juxtaposition  all  the  natural  elements 
except  rainfall  required  for  a  fruitful, 
prosperous  country.  Its  climate  is  health- 
ful and  salubrious ;  its  valleys  and  plains 
possess  a  soil  of  inexhaustible  fertility, 
and  from  the  forest-clad  mountains,  with 
summits  in  regions  of  perpetual  snow, 
countless  streams  rush  downward  to  both 
oceans  or  flow  into  desert  sinks  and  there 
evaporate.  How  to  overcome  the  absence 
of  moisture  from  the  clouds  and  thus 
bring  the  region  to  its  proper  state  of  de- 
velopment is  today  a  problem  of  para- 
mount importance.  Its  successful  solu- 
tion wrill  provide  a  safety  valve  against 
the  impending  dangers  of  congestion  in 
the  cities  of  the  East. 

The  future  of  our  desert  empire  is.  in 
a  measure,  predicated  by  the  marvelous 
achievements  of  the  pioneers.  With  a 
courage  born  of  conviction  and  fostered 
by  the  hope  which  dwells  perennial  in 
the  breast  of  the  Argonaut  of  the  sage- 
brush country,  they  have,  within  the  past 
few  years,  wrested  from  a  region  long 


regarded  as  absolutely  worthless  a  crop- 
producing,  home-supporting  area  of  in- 
exhaustible fertility,  greater  in  extent 
than  the  cultivated  lands  in  Massachu- 
setts, Connecticut,  Delaware,  New  Hamp- 
shire, New  Jersey,  Rhode  Island,  and 
Vermont,  and  capable  of  supporting  a 
larger  rural  population.  More  than 
$120,000,000  have  been  expended  in  ir- 
rigation works  in  the  West,  and  70,000 
miles  of  canals  now  carry  the  life-giving 
waters  to  10,000,000  acres,  which  each 
year  produce  crops  valued  at  more  than 
$250,000,000. 

As  good  American  citizens,  we  owe  it 
to  ourselves  to  extend  our  knowledge  of 
this  splendid  country.  There  is  an  in- 
spiration in  the  breadth  and  vastness 
of  this  sleeping  empire  in  the  West,  and 
a  sublimity  in  the  lofty  mountains  whose 
summits  are  clothed  in  perpetual  snow. 
One  breathes  optimism  and  grows  in 
mental  breadth  and  strength  in  contem- 
plating scenery  which  has  no  counterpart 
in  the  world. 

The   economic   value   of   national   irri- 


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YAKIMA  MAIDEN   PICKING   HOPS  I    YAKIMA  PROJECT,   WASHINGTON 


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263 


gation  cannot  be  measured  in  dollars 
and  cents.  The  desert  made  habitable 
offers  the  boon  of  health  to  him  who 
erects  his  dwelling  upon  it.  You  cannot 
fix  the  possibilities  of  this  land  of  silence 
and  sunshine.  We  know  that  the  influ- 
ence of  its  far-flung  horizons  and  its  true 
perspective  are  potential  in  character- 
molding  and  building.  Instead  of  the 
dead  level  of  mediocrity,  which  prevails 
in  modern  city  life,  the' desert  offers  the 
uplift  of  unmeasured  distances,  the  per- 
petual sunshine,  and  the  individual  home, 
with  the  broader  freedom  of  action  which 
comes  with  life  in  the  open.  There  is  a 
constant  inspiration  to  industry,  a  stim- 
ulation to  endeavor,  in  the  superabundant 
life  which  springs  from  the  bosom  of  the 
desert  when  water  is  applied.  The  trans- 
formation which  follows  irrigation  is  so 
remarkable  that  we  are  prone  to  believe 
Aladdin  and  his  lamp  have  really  ap- 
peared. 

MINIDOKA  PROJECT,  IDAHO 

Three  years  ago  last  July  I  camped  for 
the  night  on  the  banks  of  the  Snake 
River,  in  southern  Idaho.  Save  for  our 
campfire  there  was  no  sign  of  human 
habitation  within  30  miles,  only  a  vast 
sage-brush  plain,  rimmed  on  every  side 
by  the  horizon.  It  was  a  night  to  remem- 
ber. Over  us  spread  a  star-gemmed  can- 
opy; around  us  the  embers  of  a  sage- 
brush fire  shed  their  glow.  In  the  near 
distance  the  doleful  wailing  of  the  skulk- 
ing coyote  sent  a  chilly  feeling  up  and 
down  the  spine. 

A  weather-tanned  engineer  in  faded 
khaki  sitting  beside  me  drew  rough  plans 
in  the  sand,  and  I  listened,  interested,  but 
doubting,  while  he  pictured  the  future  of 
this  dusty  plain.  That  engineer's  plans 
found  favor  in  Washington,  and  in  two 
months  actual  work  of  construction  be- 
gan. An  army  of  men  came  upon  the 
field  and  straightway  took  that  river  and 
blocked  it  with  a  wonderful  dam ;  then 
they  led  it  into  130  miles  of  great  canals 
and  i go  miles  of  ditches,  and  spread  it 
over  85,000  acres  of  land. 

Attracted  by  the  signs  of  industry,  set- 
tlers poured  in  and  every  40  or  80  acres 


of  that  vast  area  was  taken  up.  Houses 
began  to  dot  the  plain  and  a  railroad  100 
miles  long,  a  branch  of  the  Oregon  Short 
Line,  was  built  through  the  center 
of  the  tract.  Three  new  towns  sprang 
up  as  if  by  magic.  On  the  site  of  our 
camp  a  school-house  stands  which  opened 
last  year  with  74  pupils.  Today  1,400 
families  are  living  on  farms  and  a  thou- 
sand people  are  living  in  towns  where  a 
trifle  over  three  years  ago  the  eye  met 
nothing  but  dust  and  desolation. 

The  Minidoka  Project  furnishes  in- 
dubitable evidence  that  a  better  invest- 
ment was  never  made  by  a  government 
since  the  world  began  than  national  irri- 
gation. President  Roosevelt  said,  "No 
part  of  this  nation  can  be  benefited  with- 
out a  reflex  benefit  to  the  other  part."  In 
this  one  project  we  find  the  proof  of  this 
statement,  for  the  1,400  families  who  are 
at  work  in  that  desert  valley  in  Idaho 
today  are  furnishing  a  market  for  end- 
less quantities  of  manufactured  articles, 
the  bulk  of  which  are  Eastern  made. 

PAYETTE-BOISE   PROJECT,    IDAHO 

The  Payette-Boise  Project  will  reclaim 
372,000  acres  of  land  in  the  fertile  val- 
leys of  the  Payette,  Boise,  and  Snake 
rivers,  in  southwestern  Idaho,  which  are 
tributary  to  the  Oregon  Short  Line,  the 
Boise,  Nampa  and  Owyhee,  and  the 
Idaho  Northern  railroads.  The  lands  are 
in  Ada,  Canyon,  and  Owyhee  counties, 
and  are  generally  smooth,  with  gentle 
slopes.  Construction  work  is  well  under 
way  and  many  settlers  have  already  taken 
up  their  homesteads. 

The  valleys  are  the  best  populated  in 
the  state.  The  citizens  came  largely  from 
the  middle  West  and  are  prosperous  and 
progressive.  With  superior  market  and 
transportation  facilities,  with  soil  and 
climate  adapted  to  diversified  and  inten- 
sive farming,  this  section  is  destined  to 
become  one  of  the  most  densely  ponulated 
agricultural  regions  in  the  Northwest. 

UNCOMPAHGRE   PROJECT,   COLORADO 

In  southwestern  Colorado  the  most 
spectacular  project  of  the  government  is 
nearing  completion.  In  this  region  two 


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THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


streams,  the  Uncompahgre  and  the  Gun- 
nison,  flow  in  nearly  parallel  courses 
about  10  miles  apart  and  separated  by  a 
mountain  range  2,000  feet  high.  The 
Uncompahgre  flows  through  a  broad  val- 
ley containing  several  hundred  thousand 
acres  of  fertile  land.  Its  volume  is  suffi- 
cient for  the  irrigation  of  only  a  small 
part  of  the  irrigable  area.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Gunnison  River,  a  stream  of 
much  larger  discharge,  flows  in  a  pro- 
found canyon  and  in  its  valley  there  is  no 
considerable  area  of  land  to  be  watered. 
To  augment  the  insufficient  flow  of  the 
first  stream  the  greatest  underground 
waterway  in  the  world  is  being  con- 
structed— a  tunnel  6  miles  long,  with  a 
cross-section  iol/2  by  12  feet,  under  a 
mountain  2,000  feet.  It  will  bring  into 
the  valley  a  part  of  the  waters  of  the 
Gunnison  River.  The  history  of  this 
project  is  replete  with  danger,  daring, 
and  heroism,  and  the  men  who  initiated 
this  work  and  those  who  have  carried  it 
forward  furnish  proof  enough  that  all 
of  Uncle  Sam's  heroes  do  not  wear  uni- 
forms. 

The  topographers  who  followed  to 
complete  the  original  survey  encountered 
almost  unheard  of  trials.  Many  times  it 
was  necessary  to  lower  them  by  ropes 
hundreds  of  feet  into  the  canyon.  The 
location  for  the  tunnel  was  determined  at 
a  point  where  the  canyon  was  more  than 
a  half  mile  deep.  It  was  necessary  then 
to  construct  a  road  into  this  frightful 
gorge,  a  remarkable  road,  16  miles  long, 
with  grades  out  of  the  canyon  23  per 
cent  in  places.  Heavy  machinery  was 
brought  in  and  a  power  plant  installed. 

The  difficulties  encountered  have  tried 
the  heart  of  those  engaged  upon  the 
work.  Gas,  cave-ins,  and  subterranean 
springs  have  all  interposed  obstacles  re- 
quiring the  utmost  care  in  the  prosecu- 
tion of  the  work.  At  frequent  intervals 
heavy  flows  of  water  have  been  encoun- 
tered. This  has  required  the  installation 
of  complete  pumping  facilities.  At  the 
present  time  pumps  are  discharging 
about  250,000  gallons  per  24-hour  day, 
and  the  quantity  pumped  has  been  as  high 
as  750,000  gallons  during  the  same  pe- 


riod. More  than  four  miles  of  the  tunnel 
have  been  excavated  to  date.  While  the 
tunnel  work  was  going  on  many  miles 
of  canals  were  dug,  some  of  which  were 
in  exceedingly  unfavorable  country  and 
necessitated  cement  lining. 

Irrigation  from  this  project  will  begin 
in  1909,  and  140,000  acres  of  land,  much 
of  which  is  adapted  to  the  growing  of 
deciduous  fruits,  will  be  ready  for  settle- 
ment. The  Denver  and  Rio  Grande 
Railway  traverses  this  section. 

STRAWBERRY  VALLEY  PROJECT,  UTAH 

This  project  provides  for  the  irrigation 
of  about  60,000  acres  of  land  in  central 
Utah,  situated  from  5  to  15  miles  south 
of  Provo,  and  on  the  eastern  shore  of 
Utah  Lake.  Water  supply  will  be  re- 
ceived from  a  storage  reservoir  to  be  built 
on  Strawberry  River/about  30  miles  east 
of  the  irrigable  area.  By  means  of  a  tun- 
nel 35/2  miles  long  stored  waters  will  be 
carried  under  the  divide  and  emptied  into 
Spanish  Fork,  from  which  a  canal  from 
1 8  to  20  miles  long  will  convey  them  to 
the  irrigable  area.  The  lands  have  a 
mean  elevation  of  4,500  feet. 

YAKIMA   VALLEY    PROJECTS,    WASHINGTON 

On  the  eastern  side  of  the  Cascades,  in 
Washington,  are  a  succession  of  valleys 
in  the  drainage  of  the  Yakima  River. 
Comprehensive  plans  have  been  worked 
out  by  the  Reclamation  Service  and  con- 
struction is  well  under  way  for  the  re- 
clamation of  the  largest  project  yet  un- 
dertaken. The  irrigable  area  is  nearl\r 
a  half  million  acres  and  the  cost  will  prob- 
ably exceed  $15,000,000.  The  work  is 
being  taken  up  in  divisions,  each  involv- 
ing the  irrigation  of  specified  areas. 

Storage  is  provided  by  erecting  dams 
at  the  outlets  of  several  mountain  lakes, 
the  capacity  of  which  will  total  804,000 
acre-feet.  On  the  Sunnyside  Unit  the 
government  purchased  a  large  canal,  en- 
larged it  and  rebuilt  the  diversion  dam  in 
the  Yakima.  Last  year  this  system  sup- 
plied 40,000  acres,  and  a  crop  census 
showed  that  the  yields  amounted  to 
$2,000,000  or  $50  per  acre. 

No  section  of  the  United  States 


HOME-MAKING  BY  THE  GOVERNMENT 


more  generous  returns  for  the  labor  em- 
ployed than  the  Yakima  Valley.  I  have 
never  dared  to  tell  Easterners  what  I 
really  know  to  be  true  about  the  crop 
yields.  Some  of  the  views  will  give  you 
an  idea  of  the  intensive  farming  prac- 
ticed there. 

Among  the  wealth  producers  the  apple 
orchards  take  a  high  rank.  Full-bearing 
orchards  produce  frequently  from  $300 
to  $1,200  per  acre  annually.  It  can  be 
stated  that  $300  is  less  than  the  average 
for  all  well-kept  orchards.  The  fruit 
grown  here  is  attractive,  sound,  and  ships 
well.  Its  market  is  New  York  and 
Europe,  and  the  commission  men  are  so 
eager  for  the  crop  that  it  is  often  con- 
tracted for  in  advance.  Orchard  lands 
sell  for  from  $300  to  $2,000  per  acre,  de- 
pending on  location  and  condition  of 
trees.  The  pear  crop  is  very  profitable, 
and  peaches  and  grapes  do  well.  A  large 
area  is  in  hops,  and  the  yields  here  are  so 
generous  that  I  am  told  Yakima  is  driving 
New  York  out  of  the  hop-growing 
business. 

The  Yakima  Indians  find  employment 
in  the  hop  fields  during  the  picking  sea- 
son, and  usually  camp  just  outside  the 
fields.  Alfalfa  is  another  money-maker, 
producing  from  6  to  8  tons  per  acre, 
worth  on  an  average  of  $5  per  ton  in  the 
stack.  In  1907  the  Yakima  Valley 
shipped  fruit  to  the  value  of  $1,125,000. 
Its  hay  crop  was  worth  $2,000,000;  po- 
tatoes, $250,000;  onions,  $50,000,  and 
hops,  $200,000,  a  total  of  farm  products 
of  $3,625,000.  Sixty-five  thousand  cattle 
and  20,000  sheep  were  ranged  and  fed 
in  this  valley  in  1907,  valued  at  about 
$2,000,000. 

Ten  and  20  acre  farms  are  common  in 
this  valley,  and  this  has  brought  about 
compact  rural  settlements  along  the  irriga- 
tion canals.  In  turn  there  has  followed  a 
gradual  improvement  in  social  conditions, 
with  the  elimination  of  the  isolation  of 
farm  life,  which  has  in  itself  proven  such 
an  important  factor  in  swinging  the  pen- 
dulum of  population  from  the  farm  to  the 
town.  The  luxuries  of  town  life  are  en- 
joyed in  a  measure  by  the  farmer,  who  at 
the  same  time  lives  a  life  of  freedom  in 
the  open. 


When  the  works  on  this  section  are 
completed  the  Yakima  Valley  will  be- 
come one  of  the  show  places  of  the  coun- 
try. Over  a  greater  portion  of  the  ir- 
rigable area  the  farms  will  not  exceed  20 
acres  in  area,  and  we  may  look  for  a  pop- 
ulation of  250,000  in  this  favored  region 
in  the  not  distant  future.  Fully  devel- 
oped, the  taxable  property  should  have  a 
value  of  not  less  than  $70,000,000,  mak- 
ing it  one  of  the  richest  agricultural  dis- 
tricts in  the  world. 

The  area  which  can  be  reclaimed  is 
nearly  double  that  which  is  now  irrigated 
in  Southern  California.  A  splendid  part 
of  the  life  in  the  Yakima  Valley  is  that 
one  can  live  out  of  doors  so  much  of  the 
year.  The  same  share  of  clear  skies  and 
dry  air  that  makes  Southern  California  so 
attractive  is  enjoyed  in  Washington.  The 
valley  is  on  the  main  line  of  the  Northern 
Pacific  and  the  new  line  of  the  Chicago, 
Milwaukee  and  St.  Paul  Railway  now 
building. 

OKANOGAN  PROJECT,  WASHINGTON 

The  Okanogan  country  lies  about  half 
in  British  Columbia  and  half  in  the 
United  States.  Owing  to  its  remarkable 
climate  this  valley  has  been  called  the 
California  of  the  Northwest.  The  Rec- 
lamation Service  has  nearly  completed 
an  interesting  engineering  work  here  to 
reclaim  8,000  acres.  The  land  is  very 
fertile  and,  owing  to  the  exceptionally 
favorable  climate,  a  wide  variety  of 
products,  many  of  which  are  high  priced, 
are  produced.  Frost  has  never  injured 
the  fruit  in  the  valley  in  which  this  work 
is  located,  and  there  has  never  been  a 
failure  with  apples,  peaches,  plums, 
prunes,  apricots,  pears,  cherries,  necta- 
rines, grapes,  and  all  the  varieties  of 
small  berries  grown  in  the  United  States. 
The  nearest  railway  town  is  Wenatchee. 
on  the  Great  Northern,  from  which  place 
steamboats  ply  daily  up  the  Columbia  to 
Brewster,  and  thence  by  stage  28  miles 
to  Okanogan,  a  town  of  400  inhabitants. 

UMATILLA  PROJECT,  OREGON 

The  Umatilla  project,  in  northeastern 
Oregon,  when  compared  in  area  with 
manv  others  now  under  construction, 


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267 


might  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  lesser 
works,  but  when  studied  as  to  its  possible 
future  development  it  easily  takes  a  prom- 
inent place  among  the  most  favorable  and 
attractive  agricultural  regions  in  the 
West. 

Xo  expert  who  has  investigated  this 
wonderful  land  of  sunshine  has  yet  dared 
to  place  a  limit  upon  its  agricultural  pos- 
sibilities. Nature  here  gives  the  maxi- 
mum return  for  the  minimum  of  labor. 

The  irrigable  lands  lie  in  rolling 
benches  along  the  Columbia  and  between 
it  and  the  Umatilla.  The  diversity  of 
crops,  many  of  which  are  high  priced, 
made  possible  by  the  exceptionally  favor- 
able conditions  of  soil  and  climate,  predi- 
cate small  farms  intensively  cultivated, 
providing  homes  for  an  intelligent  and 
>rosperous  husbandry.  The  promise  of  a 
:ompact  community  of  scientific  agri- 
culturists in  this  valley  is  certain  of  ful- 
fillment in  the  near  future.  From  the 
nature  of  the  crops  and  the  character  of 
the  people  who  will  grow  them  it  re- 
quires no  particular  gift  of  prophecy  to 
predict  the  establishment  in  this  valley  of 

rural  settlement  which  will  be  likened 
•unto  many  of  those  nearly  ideal  commu- 
nities which  have  grown  up  under  meth- 
ods of  intensive  irrigation  in  Southern 
California. 

The  water  supply  is  the  flood  flow  of 
the  Umatilla,  which  is  stored  in  a  reser- 
voir created  by  constructing  an  earthen 
•embankment  nearly  100  feet  in  height 
and  one-half  mile  long.  Owins^  to  the 
•exceedingly  porous  character  of  the  soil, 
many  of  the  canals  are  lined  with  cement. 
The  line  of  the  Oregon  Railroad  and 
Navigation  Company  passes  through  the 
irrigated  area. 

TRUCKEE-CARSON     PROJECT,     NEVADA 

On  the  western  border  of  the  Great 
Interior  Basin  in  the  bed  of  ancient  Lake 
Lahontan,  in  Nevada,  an  important  work 
is  now  completed  to  irrigate  160,000 
•acres.  This  is  the  dryest  part  of  the 
United  States  except  Death  Valley,  and 
was  called  "Forty  Mile  Desert''  by  the 
•gold  hunters  who  crossed  it  en  route  to 
California.  The  old  overland  trail  can 


still  be  traced  across  the  desert,  and  we 
come  upon  many  melancholy  evidences 
of  desert  tragedies,  enacted  in  the  early 
fifties.  In  excavating  canals  our  great 
shovels  have  encountered  the  bones  of 
men  and  horses  who  perished  of  thirst. 
We  know  now  that  much  of  their  suffer- 
ing was  unnecessary.  There  is  plenty  <>f 
good  water  not  far  below  the  surface  of 
the  sands.  In  fact,  the  grave-diggers,  if 
they  had  gone  a  few  feet  deeper,  would 
have  been  able  to  satisfy  their  own  thirst. 
The  irrigation  works  in  this  valley  in  a 
way  have  changed  physical  geography. 
The  Truckee  River  is  lifted  from  its  bed 
by  a  huge  dam  30  feet  high,  which  turns 
the  waters  into  a  broad  and  deep  canal 
31  miles  long  and  lined  with  cement. 
Truckee  River  is  now  flowing  into  Carson 
River.  Another  dam  in  Carson  River 
diverts  the  combined  flow  of  both  streams 
upon  the  desert,  which  has  already  begun 
to  blossom.  Eight  hundred  farms  are 
now  awaiting  settlers  here.  The  terms 
are  easy  and  the  market  for  farm  pro- 
ducts is  the  best  in  the  West.  You  reach 
this  valley  on  the  Southern  Pacific  Rail- 
way. 

KLAMATH     PROJECT,     OREGON-CALIFORNIA 

The  Klamath  Project  contemplates  the 
reclamation  of  about  190,000  acres  of 
land  situated  in  Klamath  county,  Oregon, 
and  Modoc  and  Siskiyou  counties,  Cali- 
fornia. The  plans  involve,  in  addition  to 
the  irrigation  of  the  valley  lands,  the 
reclamation  by  drainage  and  future  irri- 
gation of  a  portion  of  the  Lower  Klamath 
and  Tule  lakes,  lands  which  are  now 
either  swamp  or  lake  bottoms.  Prac- 
tically all  the  uplands,  which  include  the 
greater  part  of  the  project,  are  held  in 
private  ownership,  mostly  in  large  hold- 
ings, which,  under  the  terms  of  the  Rec- 
lamation Act,  must  be  subdivided  into 
tracts  of  not  to  exceed  I'D  acres.  The 
public  lands  under  the  project,  which  in- 
clude nearly  all  of  the  lake  and  swamp 
areas,  are  at  present  withdrawn  from 
entry.  When  these  lands  are  restored  to 
entry,  homesteaders  may  file  applications 
for  available  public  lands. 

Construction  work  on  the  first  9  miles 


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of  the  main  canal  and  the  laterals  there- 
under was  begun  in  March,  1906,  and 
completed  in  1907.  From  this  canal 
water  will  be  delivered  to  from  12,000 
to  15,000  acres  during  the  irrigation 
season  of  1908.  The  lands  under  the 
project  are  of  good  quality.  The  prin- 
cipal crops  grown  are  alfalfa,  wheat, 
oats,  barley,  rye,  vegetables,  and  some 
deciduous  fruits.  A  few  experiments  in 
sugar-beet  culture  show  that  it  is  prob- 
able this  crop  can  be  successfully  grown. 
The  principal  town  of  the  valley  is  Kla- 
math  Falls,  located  on  Link  River  about 
one  mile  below  the  lower  end  of  Upper 
Klamath  Lake.  Other  towns  in  the  valley 
are  Merrill,  situated  near  Tule  Lake,  and 
Bonanza,  situated  on  Lost  River,  within 
the  so-called  "upper  project."  The  Cali- 
fornia and  Northeastern  Railway  is  now 
under  construction  to  Klamath  Falls. 

YUM  A   PROJECT 

President  Roosevelt  is  responsible  in  a 
measure  for  the  present  widespread  in- 
terest in  the  delta  of  the  Colorado  River, 
having  made  it  the  subject  of  a  special 
message  to  Congress  last  session.  This 
region  has  been  likened  unto  the  wonder- 
ful valley  of  the  Nile,  which  it  so  greatly 
resembles  in  soil,  crops,  and  climate.  The 
world  is  familiar  with  the  catastrophe 
which  threatened  for  a  time  to  destroy  a 
very  large  area  in  the  lower  valley,  but 
few  people  appreciate  the  almost  super- 
human engineering  feat  by  which  this 
powerful  stream  was  forced  back  into  its 
old  channel.  This  was  accomplished  by 
the  engineers  of  a  great  railroad  com- 
pany, which  placed  at  their  disposal  vast 
sums  of  money  and  almost  the  entire 
equipment  of  the  system.  Since  the  river 
was  controlled  the  government  work  at 
Yuma  and  above  has  progressed  rapidly. 
The  great  weir  at  Laguna  is  now  within 
700  feet  of  closing  the  river,  and  during 
low-water  stage  this  year  heroic  efforts 
will  be  made  to  complete  this  structure. 
The  Laguna  dam  is  interesting,  as  it  is 
the  first  structure  of  this  kind  to  be 
erected  in  the  United  States.  It  is  similar 
to  several  weirs  built  bv  the  English  engi- 
neers in  Egypt  and  India. 


The  project  contemplates  the  reclama- 
tion of  about  100,000  acres  in  Arizona 
and  California.  These  lands  are  without 
question  the  most  valuable  in  the  country 
when  watered.  President  Roosevelt,  in 
his  message  to  Congress,  said  :  "The  most 
conservative  estimate  after  full  develop- 
ment must  place  the  gross  production 
from  this  land  at  not  less  than  $100  per 
acre  per  year,  every  10  acres  of  which 
will  support  a  family  when  under  inten- 
sive cultivation.  Much  of  the  land  will 
be  worth  from  $500  to  $1,500  per  acre  to 
individual  holders."  Yuma,  the  principal 
city  in  this  section,  is  on  the  Southern 
Pacific  Railway. 

A  VANISHED  RACE 

A  peculiar  interest  attaches  to  our  far 
Southwest,  for  the  reason  principally  that 
long  before  the  first  word  of  our  Nation's 
history  was  inscribed  a  semi-civilized 
people  dwelt  there  and  cultivated  its  fer- 
tile soil.  Impenetrable  mystery  envelopes 
the  age  in  which  they  lived.  With  four 
centuries  of  our  own  records  to  scan,  sup- 
plemented by  seven  centuries  of  Moki 
traditions,  the  veil  of  the  past  thus  parted 
throws  no  ray  of  light  upon  this  ancient 
race.  Their  wonderful  dwellings,  perched 
eyrie-like  in  the  deep  canyons,  and  the 
long  lines  of  their  canals,  choked  with 
the  wind-swept  drift  of  centuries,  give 
mute  and  pathetic  evidence  of  their  archi- 
tectural and  engineering  skill. 

Frowning  battlements  overlooking  the 
desert,  crumbling  slowly  into  dust  with 
the  weight  of  ages,  breathe  of  war  and 
romance  in  an  age  forgotten.  These 
monster  structures,  containing  millions  of 
pieces  of  stone,  and  the  miles  of  canals 
which  embraced  whole  valleys,  tell  of  a 
thrifty  home-loving  husbandry.  In  these 
voiceless  and  vacant  ruins  we  may  almost 
read  the  story  of  Egypt  of  the  scriptures^ 
of  another  people  toiling  under  the  des- 
ert's brazen  skies,  wearily  and  painfully 
executing  the  commands  of  another 
Pharaoh. 

What  Fate  overtook  them  we  shall 
never  know.  Yet  among  these  castled 
cliffs  we  know  that  men  have  lived  and 
died,  and  youths  and  maidens  have  re- 


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271 


BALED  HAY  STORAGE  BUILDING  AT  THE  CHANDLER  RANCH,  6  MILES  SOUTH  OF  MESA, 

ARIZONA.    WATER  IS  SUPPLIED  FOR  THE  IRRIGATION  QF  THIS  HAY  BY  PUMPING 
PLANTS:  SALT  RIVER  PROJECT,  ARIZONA 


peated,  o'er  and  o'er,  the  old,  sweet  story. 
We  confess  to  a  feeling  of  sadness  as  we 
view  these  structures  erected  in  an  age 
unknown — structures  revealing  order  and 
intelligence,  craftsmanship  and  patience, 
and  rivalling  in  some  degree  the  work  of 
modern  engineers.  The  Cheltro  Palace  is 
449  feet  long,  250  feet  wide,  and  4  stories 
high.  Along  three  sides  of  it  extends  a 
wall  950  feet  long  and  40  feet  in  height. 
The  masonry  work  in  this  building  and 
wall  contained  more  than  30,000,000 
pieces  of  stone.  All  had  to  be  quarried, 
then  carried  up  steep  ladders  in  baskets 
on  the  backs  of  men  before  being  placed 
in  position.  Considering  the  primitive 
stone  implements  used  and  the  magnitude 
of  this  structure,  the  time  and  labor  re- 
quired to  construct  this  building  make  it 
the  most  famous  and  stupendous  work  of 
our  country. 

SALT    RIVER    PROJECT,    ARIZONA 

Let  us  in  fancy  visit  this  land  of  mys- 
tery, of  lost  races  and  hoary  ruins,  a  land 


whose  civilization  was  old  perhaps  when 
Caesar  sat  upon  his  throne.  Starting 
from  the  charming  city  of  Phcenix,  in  the 
heart  of  Salt  River  Valley,  let  us  take  a 
journey  to  the  wonderful  engineering 
works  of  this  project.  Leaving  Phcenix 
by  train,  the  Santa  Fe  or  Southern 
Pacific  railways,  it  is  only  a  short  ride  to 
Tempe,  where  we  may  profitably  pause 
a  moment  or  two  to  get  a  broad  view  of 
the  valley  from  the  summit  of  the  high 
butte  just  at  the  edge  of  the  town.  We 
note  a  peculiarity  here  as  we  gaze  upon 
the  cultivated  fields.  There  are  no  farm- 
houses on  the  farms.  Here  we  find  a 
return  to  the  communal  systen  of  farm 
life,  which  was  typical  in  the  days  of  the 
cliff-dwellers  and  later  in  those  of  the 
Pueblo  Indians.  The  farmer  lives  in 
town  and  goes  to  and  from  his  small 
farm  each  day.  Here  at  last  the  farmer's 
wife  has  her  innings.  She  has  the  society 
of  her  neighbors,  her  children  have 
graded  schools ;  the  church  and  library 
are  at  hand.  There  is  no  isolation,  no 


272 


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274          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


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HOME-MAKING  BY  THE  GOVERNMENT 


275 


276          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


THE:  TOP  OF  FISH  CREEK  HILL,  ARIZONA,  ON  THE  MESA  AND  ROOSEVELT  STAGE  ROAD, 
WHICH  WAS  BUILT  BY  THE  GOVERNMENT  I  SALT  RIVER  PROJECT, 

ARIZONA    (SEE   PAGE   2/8) 


HOME-MAKING  BY  THE  GOVERNMENT 


277 


loneliness.  We  find  under  these  condi- 
tions also  that  there  is  no  strong  tendency 
on  the  part  of  the  young  men  and  women 
to  drift  to  the  crowded  cities. 

From  Tempe  to  Mesa  is  another  short 
ride  by  rail  through  a  well-irrigated  sec- 
tion. Leaving  Mesa  in  the  early  morn- 
ing, when  the  air  is  fresh  and  sweet  with 
the  perfume  of  countless  blossoms,  we 
journey  for  a  distance  of  8  miles  through 
a  region  where  nature  seems  to  be  ever 
at  work  producing  varied  and  wonderful 
forms  of  vegetation.  Just  beside  our 
window  we  note  the  magnificent  date 
palm,  its  broad  leaves  bending  in  graceful 
curves  and  shading  an  abundance  of  lus- 
cious fruit.  We  are,  indeed,  in  Egypt, 
for  the  date,  you  remember,  was  the 
bread  of  the  desert.  If  we  doubt,  a  little 
further  along  we  come  upon  an  olive 
orchard,  and  just  beyond  the  almond 
trees  are  in  bloom,  lending  fragrance  to 
an  atmosphere  already  perfumed. 

We  pause  to  observe  a  large  flock  of 
ostriches  wandering  over  an  alfalfa 
meadow  and  rub  our  eyes  to  be  sure  we 
are  really  in  our  own  country.  More 
familiar  to  us  appear  the  sleek,  fat  cattle 
standing  knee  deep  in  the  cool  alfalfa. 
This  alfalfa  is  a  wonderful  crop  down 
here,  a  veritable  farmer's  bank  account, 
frequently  yielding  12  tons  to  an  acre  per 
year,  worth  from  five  to  ten  dollars  per 
ton. 

We  linger  just  a  moment  to  gather  a 
few  oranges  from  the  grove  beside  the 
road,  and  as  we  eat  we  wonder  why  such 
fruit  never  comes  to  our  tables. 

There  is  such  a  riot  of  color  about  this 
cottage  that  we  want  to  stop  long  enough 
to  ask  the  housewife  how  she  can  get 
roses  to  bloom  in  this  wonderful  way,  but 
we  have  a  long  journey  and  we  only  learn 
that  most  farmers'  wives  in  this  valley, 
having  both  time  and  inclination,  delight 
in  beautifying  their  homes. 

"TH£  LAND  THAT  GOD  FORGOT" 

All  too  quickly  we  have  driven  over 
this  flowery,  fruitful  vale.  With  a  sud- 
denness that  is  startling  we  come  upon  a 
scene  of  death  and  desolation,  where 
everything  bears  mute  evidence  of  a  ter- 


rible struggle  for  life.  It  is  the  land  some 
one  called  "The  Land  that  God  Forgot." 
Everything  that  grows  is  covered  with  a 
thorn;  everything  that  crawls  is  deadly. 
It  is  a  topsy-turvy  wonderland.  We  may 
not  drink  of  the  waters  of  the  desert 
stream,  for  they  are  salty.  In  this  strange 
region  they  dig  for  wood  and  climb  for 
water,  for  the  water  is  found  in  cup- 
shaped  pools  in  the  hills  and  the  wood  is 
the  big  root  of  the  mesquite. 

For  20  miles  our  road,  a  government 
road,  stretches  across  the  desert  and  we 
begin  to  feel  some  of  its  compelling  and 
pervasive  mystery.  There  is  a  beauty  and 
charm  about  it,  too,  which  cannot  be  de- 
scribed. The  distant  buttes  are  glowing 
richly  red  in  the  early  morning  light  and 
the  landscape,  some  one  has  said,  "sug- 
gests a  thought  of  God's  original  palette 
whereon  he  mixed  the  colors  with  which 
he  brought  forth  the  glories  of  a  south- 
west sunset,"  the  opal-tinted  morn  and 
the  fairest  shades  of  rose  and  green  and 
yellow. 

The  desert  vegetation  is  interesting. 
We  come  upon  the  Sahaurra,  ihe  giant 
cactus,  the  sentinel  of  the  desert,  clothed 
from  base  to  top  with  thorns,  yet  bearing 
delicate  and  waxen  yellow  blossoms. 
Singly  and  in  pairs  they  grow,  some  at- 
taining a  height  of  45  feet.  Sometimes 
we  find  them  in  groves.  The  cliff-dwell- 
ers used  the  heart  of  this  plant  for  floors 
in  their  houses. 

Our  first  stop  in  the  desert  is  at  Desert 
Wells.  It  remained  for  our  generation 
to  discover  that  underneath  these  burn- 
ing sands,  and  at  no  great  depth,  is  an 
inexhaustible  supply  of  water,  fresh  and 
sweet.  At  several  points  along  our  way 
the  government  has  put  down  these  wells 
to  supply  the  needs  of  the  thousands  of 
men  and  teams  constantly  crossing  the 
desert. 

Rising  straight  up  from  the  desert  is 
a  distant  range  of  mountains.  They  seem 
to  float  above  the  edge  of  the  level  plain, 
intangible  and  unreal,  yet  transcendently 
beautiful  in  coloring  and  contour. 

As  we  enter  the  mountain  country 
glory  after  glory  of  view  is  presented. 
Changeful,  charming  landscape  pano- 


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THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


ramas  are  unfolded  before  us.  The  colors 
illusive  and  divinely  artistic,  shift  and 
change  and  blend  as  we  gaze  in  wonder 
and  amazement. 


MOST    WONDERFUL     HIGHWAY 
BUILT  BY  MAN 

We  are  now  entering  upon  what  many 
travelers  have  described  as  the  most  won- 
derful highway  ever  made  by  man.  A 
great  thoroughfare  built  for  40  miles 
through  the  heart  of  a  rugged  range  of 
mountains  and  for  the  most  part  literally 
carved  from  the  living  rock.  As  we  go 
along  note  the  coloring  on  the  rocks,  and 
believe  me  when  I  tell  you  the  colors 
shown  are  not  exaggerated,  for  it  would 
be  impossible  for  human  artist  to  dupli- 
cate, far  less  to  exaggerate,  the  colors 
which  the  Divine  Hand  has  put  upon 
these  stones. 

I  need  not  tell  you  that  road-building 
in  a  country  like  this  was  difficult;  that 
fact  stares  you  in  the  face  at  every  point. 
When  the  surveying  party  reached  the  top 
of  Fish  Creek  Hill  the  engineer  called  a 
halt.  He  wanted  time  to  think;  and  the 
problem  before  him  demanded  thought. 
He  looked  over  the  cliff  into  a  blind  can- 
yon, into  which  there  was  not  even  a 
foot  trail.  A  thousand  feet  sheer  below 
him  he  could  discover  faintly  a  tiny 
stream  of  water  and  a  few  green  trees. 
How  was  he  going  to  get  there  with  a 
wagon  road  over  which  tons  and  tons 
of  machinery  must  be  hauled  ?  A  hurried 
reconnaissance  disclosed  the  fact  that  to 
go  around  the  canyon  meant  adding  15 
miles  to  the  road.  It  was  not  to  be 
thought  of.  So  he  decided  to  blast  a  road 
down  the  face  of  the  steep  cliff,  and  it 
was  done. 

It  would  be  simply  terrifying  to  go 
over  the  road  today  but  for  the  fact  that 
the  government  has  built  it  broad  and 
comfortable,  with  easy  grades  and  many 
safe  turnouts,  for  standing  here  at  the 
edge  of  the  road  a  pebble  slipped  from 
the  ringers  shoots  almost  straight  down 
a  thousand  feet  without  stopping. 

At  one  point  we  get  a  view  of  the  road 
almost  to  the  blind  end  of  the  canyon, 
and  can  also  see  the  line  of  road  as  it 


turns  back  on  the  other  side.  Just  before 
we  make  this  turn  we  cross  a  pretty  little 
bridge  60  feet  above  Fish  Creek.  Down 
in  the  bottom  of  the  canyon  we  find 
Frazier's  Road  House,  a  comfortable 
little  inn,  with  good  beds  and  a  genial 
landlord.  Here  we  shall  spend  the  night. 
In  this  canyon,  a  miniature  grand  canyon 
of  the  Colorado,  we  will  witness  the 
golden  glory  of  a  sunset  whose  splendor 
will  be  impressed  forever  on  our  mem- 
ory. Later  we  shall  sit  in  the  twilight 
and  watch  the  stars  steal  forth  in  skies 
that  seem  to  touch  the  walls  of  the  can- 
yon all  around  us. 

The  brooding  mystery  of  the  scene  and 
the  witchery  of  the  hour  will  sink  deeply 
into  our  hearts  and  color  our  dreams  for 
many  nights  hereafter. 

In  the  morning  early  we  make  our  start 
to  climb  out  of  the  canyon.  Another 
panorama  of-  mountains,  uncanny  buttes, 
steep-walled  canyons,  and  narrow  val- 
leys passes  before  us.  Freakishly  shaped 
rocks,  grotesque  and  awe-inspiring,  tower 
above  us.  What  wonder  that  the  Indian 
viewed  the  country  with  superstition  and 
awe! 

At  places  we  skirt  dark  chasms.  Here 
the  road  has  been  cut  from  a  rock  that  is 
milk  white.  Here  the  mountain-top  was 
blasted  off  and  the  road  built  from  the 
river  up.  Here  we  have  a  long  swing  on 
the  edge  of  a  profound  forge,  and  as  we 
pass  along  we  are  thankful  indeed  that 
our  road  is  wide  and  safe. 

Higher  and  higher  we  climb,  every 
moment  catching  glimpses  of  difficult 
problems  in  road  building  worked  out 
successfully.  We  pass  through  great 
cuts,  and  here  and  there  the  road  has  been 
built  up  from  below  with  masonry. 

THE  ROOSEVELT  DAM  AND  OTHER  MARVELS 

Our  road  has  brought  us  to  the  top 
of  the  narrow  gorge  Salt  River  has  cut 
through  the  mountains,  and  we  look  down 
upon  one  of  the  world's  greatest  engi- 
neering works  in  process  of  construction, 
the  Roosevelt  dam.  This  wonderful 
structure  of  sandstone  and  cement  will 
rise  284  feet  above  the  river.  It  will  be 
i, 080  feet  long  on  top  and  170  feet  thick 


HOME-MAKING  BY  THE  GOVERNMENT  279 


at  the  base.     Its   foundation  will  cover 
one  acre  of  ground. 

Placed  by  the  side  of  a  2O-story  build- 
ing, it  would  rise  ten  feet  above  it,  while 
its  length  on  top  would  be  more  than  two 
city  blocks.  Across  its  top  will  be  a  road- 
way 20  feet  wide. 

By  day  and  by  night  the  dull  roar  of 
dynamite  breaks  the  desert  stillness,  and 
the  canyon  walls  go  crashing  down  to 
furnish  material  for  this  structure.  Great 
blocks  of  sandstone  weighing  ten  tons 
each  aie  swung  out  on  cranes  and  set  in 
place. 

When  night  comes  myriads  of  electric 
lights  burst  forth,  weirdly  illuminating 
a  busy  army  of  toilers,  working  gnome- 
like  in  a  shadowy  canyon.  It  is  a  wond- 
rous scene,  unreal,  awesome,  and  in- 
spiring. 

Every  stone  that  is  laid  in  that  narrow 
arch,  which  is  to  curb  that  foaming  river, 
brings  nearer  and  nearer  the  day  when 
the  town  of  Roosevelt  shall  vanish  be- 
neath an  inland  sea. 

When  those  massive  gates  of  iron  in 
the  big  dam,  weighing  60,000  pounds,  are 
closed,  a  rising  flood  will  cover  the  site 
of  the  city  220  feet  deep.  The  people 
knew  it  was  a  doomed  city  when  they 
built  it,  but  this  did  not  deter  them.  They 
built  stores  and  dwellings,  a  school-house 
and  a  church,  and  brought  water  from 
distant  mountain  springs. 

This  government  work  is  interesting 
not  only  to  the  engineer,  but  also  to  the 
layman.  It  is  located  in  a  valley  which 
has  been  the  abode  of  three  races,  one  of 
which  lived  here  when  Rome  was  young. 
Two  of  those  wonderful  cliff-dwellings 
are  almost  in  sight  of  the  modern  struc- 
ture that  is  soon  to  submerge  some  of 
the  lands  which  formerly  produced  their 
harvests. 

Owing  to  the  remoteness  from  trans- 
portation, the  government  engineer  had 
to  engage  in  many  enterprises.  He  built 
roads  to  get  machinery  in.  He  sawed 
millions  of  feet  of  lumber  from  the  na- 
tional forests  nearby.  He  turned  farmer 
and  raised  his  own  produce,  his  hay,  pork, 
beef,  and  chickens.  In  the  construction 
of  the  dam  240,000  barrels  of  cement  are 
required  and  the  lowest  bid  from  the 


cement  manufacturers  was  prohibitive. 
I  his  engineer,  undaunted,  found  a  lime- 
stone ledge  near  the  dam  and  proceeded 
to  erect  a  cement  mill.  It  has  already 
turned  out  80,000  barrels  of  cement  at  a 
cost  far  below  the  lowest  bid. 

Power  was  essential,  so  a  dam  was 
built  1 6  miles  upstream,  turning  a  part 
of  the  river  into  a  power  canal.  The 
canal,  having  less  grade  than  the  river, 
appears  to  carry  the  water  uphill. 

A  part  of  it  is  lined  with  cement.  It 
crosses  rough  country  in  viaducts  that 
make  us  think  of  the  works  of  ancient 
Rome.  Near  the  dam  site  it  passes 
through  a  tunnel  and  downward  into  the 
mountain,  a  drop  of  220  feet.  The  water 
falls  upon  the  turbines  located  in  a  unique 
power-house,  a  niche  in  the  canyon  walls, 
and  generates  4,400  horse-power.  The 
power  is  utilized  by  the  contractor,  it 
operates  the  cement  plant,  the  electric- 
light  plant,  and  is  used  for  other  pur- 
poses. 

THE;  APACHE  LABORERS 

On  the  way  to  the  saw-mills  we  pass 
a  number  of  salt  caves,  each  of  wonderful 
beauty.  The  salt  is  deposited  by  salt 
springs.  It  is  from  these  springs  that  the 
river  takes  its  name,  for  the  waters  of 
Salt  River  are  too  salty  to  drink,  but  for- 
tunately not  salty  enough  to  be  injurious 
when  used  for  irrigation. 

The  most  difficult  problem  for  the  engi- 
neer to  solve  was  the  labor  question.  The 
common  laborer  did  not  like  the  job, 
chiefly,  it  is  said,  because  he  could  not 
spend  his  money  fast  enough.  This  is  a 
government  reservation;  there  are  no 
saloons  ;  no  gambling  is  permitted.  There 
are  no  towns  nearer  than  60  miles,  so 
he  did  not  look  with  favor  on  the  work. 
The  real  worth  of  the  engineer  came  out 
when  he  turned  missionary  and  held  a 
pow-wow  with  the  Apache  Indians,  who 
have  lived  in  the  basin  for  generations. 
It  seems  incredible,  yet  it  is  nevertheless 
true,  he  succeeded  in  inducing  several 
hundred  of  them  to  go  on  the  pay-roll, 
and,  largely  through  their  labors,  the 
wonderful  highway  we  just  crossed  over 
was  built. 

Some  of  the  Apaches  developed.    Sev- 


280          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


HOME-MAKING    BY    THE    GOVERN 


MENT 


28l 


THE  RAISING  OF  GRAPHS  IN  THE  SALT  RIVER  VALLEY,  NEAR  MESA,  ARIZONA 

With  proper  irrigation  in  this  section  of  the  Southwest  almost  any  kind  of  fruit  can  he  suc- 
cessfully and  profitably  raised.    Grapes  do  very  well  in  this  valley 


282          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


ALMOND   ORCHARD   IN    BLOOM    IN   THE   SALT    RIVER   VALLEY,    ARIZONA  I    SALT    RIVER 

PROJECT,  ARIZONA 


HOME-MAKING 


GOVERNMENT 


DATE; 


IN  SALT  RIVER  VALLEY.,  NEAR  MESA,  SHOWING  THE  ENORMOUS  CROP  OF 

DATES  ON  ONE  TREE  I    SALT  RIVER  VALLEY  PROJECT,  ARIZONA 


284          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


THE  IVY  RANCH,  NEAR  PHCE)NIX,  ARIZONA  :    SAI/T  RIVE}R  PROJECT,  ARIZONA 

The  bee  industry  in  the  Salt  River  Valley  is  a  very  profitable  industry,  as  the  climatic 
conditions  are  perfect,  and  the  clover  and  alfalfa  fields,  as  well  as  the  wild  mesquite,  affords 
good  feed  for  the  bees,  making  this  section  of  the  country  very  well  adapted  for  this  business.. 


HOME-MAKING  BY  THE  GOVERNMENT 


285 


eral,  starting  as  common  laborers,  showed 
such  industry  and  ability  that  they  were 
promoted  to  responsible  positions,  as  road 
supervisors  in  charge  of  their  own  tribes- 
men on  difficult  road  work. 

There  is  something  like  poetic  justice  in 
the  labor  of  the  Indian  with  pick  and 
shovel  to  reclaim  a  valley  he  so  often 
watered  with  the  blood  of  the  white  man. 

While  the  braves  are  working  for  the 
government  on  the  road,  in  the  cement 
mill,  the  brick-yard,  and  elsewhere,  the 
squaws  in  the  teepees  weave  wonderful 
baskets,  which  find  ready  sale  in  the  camp 
and  in  the  valley  below. 

Sixty  miles  below  Roosevelt  another 
enormous  structure  is  rapidly  nearing 
completion.  It  will  divert  the  stored 
waters  into  canals  on  each  side  of  the 
river  which  lead  it  to  the  fields  below. 
One  of  these  canals  was  partly  excavated 
by  the  cliff-dwellers,  who  cut  it  through 
solid  rock.  Think  of  the  patience  and 
time  they  must  have  expended  in  a  work 
like  this,  when  their  only  implements 
were  of  stone. 

Settlers  are  already  erecting  their 
homes  on  the  desert,  and  soon  we  shall 
call  this  the  land  that  God  remembered, 
for,  with  water  from  those  distant  moun- 
tains stored  in  vast  reservoirs  and  led 
through  a  thousand  miles  of  canals  and 
ditches,  the  desert  will  smile,  oases  of 
green  will  spring  forth,  and  homes  of 
beauty  and  peace  will  dot  the  landscape. 

TERMS    OF    SALE    OF     GOVERNMENT    LAND 

If  the  thousands  of  inquiries  which  are 
addressed  to  the  Statistician  of  the  Rec- 
lamation Service,  at  Washington,  D.  C., 
can  be  accepted  as  any  indication,  the 
West  will  be  the  Mecca  for  hundreds  of 
home-seekers  this  spring.  Many  other 
projects  of  the  government  which  are 
ready  for  irrigation  contain  large  areas 
of  land  for  sale  by  private  owners  who 
are  under  agreement  with  the  United 
States  to  dispose  of  their  holdings.  By 
the  terms  of  the  Reclamation  Law  no 
farm  will  contain  more  than  160  acres. 
Every  settler  must  reside  upon  the  land, 
and  must  cultivate  it  for  five  years  before 
he  can  secure  a  patent.  The  homestead 
rights  of  soldiers  and  sailors  are  not 


abridged  by  the  Reclamation  Act.  Home- 
seekers  should  have  money— how  much 
depends,  of  course,  upon  the  settler  and 
the  kind  of  farming  he  expects  to  do. 
While  there  are  numerous  opportunities 
to  secure  work,  the  settler  with  money 
and  equipment  will  be  able  to  get  his  land 
in  condition  for  irrigation  and  will  thus 
secure  an  early  income  from  his  farm. 

A  knowledge  of  irrigation  is  not  ab- 
solutely essential.  The  government  will 
have  a  practical  farmer  on  each  project 
to  advise  new-comers.  On  several  pro- 
jects there  are  demonstration  farms  on 
which  are  grown  the  crops  adapted  to 
that  section.  During  portions  of  the  year 
the  government  will  give  employment  to 
settlers  in  constructing  canals,  laterals, 
and  building  roads. 

SUMMARY  OF   WORK  DONE 

A  summation  of  the  work  of  the  Rec- 
lamation Service  for  1907  shows  that  it 
has  dug  i, 88 1  miles  of  canals,  or  nearly 
the  distance  from  Washington  to  Idaho. 
Some  of  these  canals  carry  whole  rivers, 
like  the  Truckee  River  in  Nevada,  and 
the  North  Platte  in  Wyoming.  The  tun- 
nels excavated  are  56  in  number,  and 
have  an  aggregate  length  of  13^2  miles. 
The  Service  has  erected  281  large  struc- 
tures, including  the  great  dams  in  Ne- 
vada and  the  Minidoka  Dam  in  Idaho,  80 
feet  high  and  650  feet  long.  It  has  com- 
pleted 1,000  headworks,  flumes,  etc.  It 
has  built  611  miles  of  wagon  road  in 
mountainous  country  and  into  heretofore 
inaccessible  regions.  It  has  erected  and  in 
operation  830  miles  of  telephones.  Its 
own  cement  mill  has  manufactured  80,000 
barrels  of  cement,  and  the  purchased 
amount  is  403,000  barrels.  Its  own  saw- 
mills have  cut  3,036,000  feet  B.  M.  of 
lumber,  and  23,685,000  feet  have  been 
purchased.  The  surveying  parties  of  the 
Service  have  completed  topographic  sur- 
veys covering  10,9/0  square  miles,  an 
area  greater  than  the  combined  areas  of 
Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island.  The 
transit  lines  had  a  length  of  18,900  linear 
miles,  while  the  level  lines  run  amount  to 
24,218  miles,  or  nearly  sufficient  to  go 
around  the  earth. 

The   diamond   drillings   for   dam  sites 


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THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


and  canals  amount  to  66,749  feet,  or  more 
than  12  miles.  Today  the  Service  owns 
and  has  at  work  1,500  horses  and  mules. 
It  operates  9  locomotives,  611  cars,  and 
23  miles  of  railroad,  84  gasoline  engines 
and  70  steam  engines.  It  has  constructed 
and  is  operating  5  electric-light  plants. 
There  have  been  excavated  42,447,000 
cubic  yards  of  earth  and  rock.  The 
equipment  now  operated  by  the  Service 
on  force  account  work  represents  an  in- 
vestment of  a  million  dollars. 

This  work  has  been  carried  on  with 
the  following  force :  Classified  and  regis- 
tered service,  including  Washington  of- 
fice, 1,126;  laborers  employed  directly  by 
the  government,  4,448;  laborers  em- 
ployed by  contractors,  10,789,  or  a  total 
of  all  forces  of  16,363.  The  expenditures 
now  total  nearly  $1,000,000  per  month. 


As  a  result  of  the  operations  of  the  Rec- 
lamation Service  eight  new  towns  have 
been  established,  100  miles  of  branch 
railroads  have  been  constructed,  and 
14,000  people  have  taken  up  their  resi- 
dence in  the  desert. 

The  following  is  a  list  of  the  approved 
projects  on  which  construction  has  been 
commenced.  The  table  shows  the  ir- 
rigable area  of  the  projects  to  the  points 
to  which  it  is  expected  to  carry  them 
during  the  four  years  1908  to  1911;  the 
estimated  cost  to  complete  the  work  to 
these  points ;  the  estimated  expenditures 
to  the  end  of  the  calendar  year  1907,  and 
the  percentage  of  completion  December 
31,  1907,  based  upon  the  ratios  of  the 
expenses  to  that  date  to  the  total  esti- 
mated cost : 


Areas,  Cost,  Expenditures,  etc.,  on  Entire  Projects  or  Such  Units  as  it  is  Expected  to  Complete 

by  ign. 


Location. 

Project. 

Area 
in  acres. 

Estimated 
cost. 

Estimated 
expenditure 
to  Decem- 
ber 31,  1907. 

Per 

cent  of 
com- 
pletion. 

Arizona 

Salt  River 

210,000 

$6  300  ooo 

$4  ^62  IOO 

6q  2 

California 

Orland  . 

30,000 

I  2OO  OOO 

1  6  900 

I    4 

California-Arizona  

Yuma  

100,000 

4,500,000 

1,876,700 

41.7 

Colorado 

Uncompahgre 

140,000 

5  600  ooo 

2  900  OOO 

si  8 

Colorado 

Grand  Valley 

50,000 

2  250  ooo 

9  7  CQ 

Idaho  

Minidoka  

160,000 

4,000,000 

1,839,700 

46.0 

Idaho 

Payette-Boise 

100,000 

•j  OOO  OOO 

i  ^81  soo 

46  s 

Kansas 

Garden  City 

8,000 

7  CQ  OOO 

282  ooo 

80  5 

Montana 

Huntley 

30,000 

900  ooo 

7  06  400 

88.4 

IVtontana 

Milk   River    including 

30,000 

I   2OO  OOO 

•JI4  800 

26  2 

Montana 

Saint  Mary. 
Sun  River 

16,000 

500  ooo 

^44,100 

60.0 

Nebraska-  Wyoming  .  . 

North  Platte  

110,000 

3,850.000 

2,797,300 

73.0 

Nevada 

Truckee—  Carson 

160,000 

4  800,000 

3,804,600 

7Q.2 

New  Mexico  

Carlsbad  

20,000 

640,000 

579,400 

8l.5 

New  Mexico 

Hondo 

10,000 

3,70  ooo 

^58,600 

97.O 

New  Mexico 

Leasburg 

10,000 

200,000 

167,000 

8^.9 

New  Mexico-Texas  .... 

Rio  Grande  

160,000 

8,000,000 

53,200 

.6 

North  Dakota 

Pumping  Buford—  Tren- 

40,000 

1,240  ooo 

519,600 

41  .9 

Montana-North  Dakota 
•Oresron  .  , 

ton,  Williston. 
Lower  Yellowstone  
Umatilla 

66,000 
18,000 

2,700,000 

I,  IOOVOOO 

751,850 
765,500 

64.9 
69.6 

Oregon—  California  . 

Klamath 

120,000 

3,600,000 

1,305,080 

36.2 

South  Dakota  . 

Belle  Fourche. 

ICOjOOO 

3,500,000 

1,281,900 

36.6 

Utah  

Strawberry  Valley  .  . 

30,000 

1,500,000 

418,700 

27.9 

Washington  .      .       .... 

Okanogan  . 

8,000 

500,000 

372,180 

74-4 

Washington  

Sunnyside.  . 

40,000 

1,600,000 

481,180 

30.7 

Washington  

Tieton  

24,000 

1,500,000 

565,420 

37-6 

Washington  

Wapato  ....                   ... 

20,000 

600,000 

5,220 

8.7 

Shoshone  .... 

100,000 

4,500,000 

2,313,990 

51.5 

1,910,000 

$70,000,000 

$30,665,570 

An  average  of  $36.65  per  acre. 


HOME-MAKING  BY  THE  GOVERNMENT  287 


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288          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


Photos  by  Ellsworth  Huntington 
THE    SEA   OF    SAND   OF   THE   TAKLA    MAKAN    DESERT 

THE  SEA  OF  SALT  OF  THE  LOP  DESERT 


MEDIEVAL   TALES   OF   THE   LOP   BASIN   IN 

CENTRAL  ASIA* 

BY  ELLSWORTH  HUNTINGTON 


THE  modern  West  discovered  the 
Lake  of  Lop-Nor,  in  Chinese 
Turkestan,  only  thirty  years  ago, 
yet  in  the  Middle  Ages  Chaucer  and  his 
predecessors  seem  to  have  known  as 
much  about  that  region  as  the  average 
man  knows  today.  In  recounting  the  vir- 
tues of  the  Duchess  Blanche,  Chaucer 
speaks  of  the  sweet  reasonableness  with 
which  she  treated  her  many  lovers.  She 
did  not  hold  them  in  suspense,  nor  for 
he  sake  of  proving  them  did  she: 


'  .    .    .   Sende  men  into  Walakye, 
To  Pruyse  and  into  Tartarye, 
To  Alisaundre,  ne  into  Turkye, 
And  bid  him  faste,  anoon  that  he 
Go  hoodless  to  the  Drye  See, 
And  come  hoom  by  the  Carrenare." 


Apparently  the  Dry  Sea  and  the  Car- 
renare were  the  most  inaccessible  regions 
of  which  Chaucer  had  ever  heard,  more 
inaccessible  even  than  Wallachia,  Prussia, 
Tartary,  Turkey,  and  other  erstwhile  re- 
mote places  of  which  he  knew  little. 
After  much  discussion  by  literary  critics 
as  to  the  geography  of  the  places  to 
which  the  Duchess  did  not  send  her  lov- 
ers, Prof.  J.  L.  Lowesf  has  shown  that 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  Car- 
renare is  the  small  salt  lake  of  Kara-Nor, 
at  the  eastern  end  of  Chinese  Turkestan. 
It  lies  in  the  vast  "Gobi"  or  "Desert" 
about  200  miles  west  of  the  supposed 
end  of  the  Great  Chinese  Wall.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  the  remains  of  the  wall 
extend  not  only  to,  but  beyond  the  lake, 
as  Dr  Stein  has  recently  discovered.  Pro- 
fessor Lowes  concludes  further  that  the 
Dry  Sea  is  the  great  sandy  desert  of  Tak- 
lamakan,  a  few  hundred  miles  to  the  west 
of  Kara-Nor.  It  appears  to  be  either  this 
or  the  broad  salt  plain  of  the  ancient  bed 
of  the  Lake  of  Lop-Nor,  between  Kara- 
Nor  and  Takla-makan.  The  terrible 


summer  heat  and  winter  cold  of  the  whole 
region  make  it  indeed  a  place  to  which 
few  people  would  be  so  hardy  as  to  go 
"hoodless"  at  any  season. 

Apparently  European  knowledge  of 
Central  Asia  in  Chaucer's  day  was  de- 
rived more  or  less  directly  from  the 
famous  Letters  of  Prester  John,  perhaps 
by  way  of  the  plagiarized  accounts  of 
Sir  John  Mandeville.  Prester  John  was 
a  semi-mythical  Christian  prince  who  is 
supposed  to  have  lived  in  Central  Asia, 
and  who  sent  boastful  letters  to  the  Pope 
of  Rome  in  the  latter  half  of  the  twelfth 
century.  The  Letters  aroused  great  in- 
terest in  Europe  for  three  or  four  cen- 
turies, and  many  attempts  were  vainly 
made  to  find  the  author's  country.  At 
first  he  »was  supposed  to  live  in  Asia,  as 
was  probably  the  case.  Hundreds  of 
years  after  the  writing  of  the  letters,  how- 
ever, the  Portuguese  heard  of  a  Christian 
king  living  in  Abyssinia,  and,  supposing 
him  to  be  the  great  Prestor  John,  sent  sev- 
eral expeditions  to  form  an  alliance  with 
him.  The  vaunting  boasts  of  the  wide  do- 
minion and  great  splendor  of  Prester 
John,  whose  butler  is  said  to  have  been  a 
primate  and  a  king,  and  his  steward  an 
archbishop  and  a  king,  are  certainly  false. 
Nevertheless  the  Letters  contain  a  large 
amount  of  garbled  truth,  and  their  writer 
must  have  known  a  good  deal  more  about 
Central  Asia  than  has  generally  been 
supposed. 

He  tells  us  that,  "Among  other  things 
which  are  very  wonderful  in  our  country 
is  a  sea  of  sand  without  water.  For  the 
sand  moves  and  swells  in  waves  in  the 
manner  of  all  seas,  and  is  never  still. 
This  sea  cannot  be  crossed  either  by  boat 
or  by  any  other  method,  and  of  what  sort 
the  land  may  be  beyond  it  no  one  can 
know.  And  although  water  is  absent 


*  Abstract  of  an  address  to  the  National  Geographic  Society,  January  17,  1908. 
t  Modern  Philology,  vol.  iii,  1905,  pp.  1-46. 


2QO 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


entirely,  nevertheless  there  are  found  on 
the  shore  on  our  side  many  kinds  of  fish 
more  delicious  and  sweet-tasting  than 
are  ever  seen  anywhere  else."  Other 
wonders  are  related  of  the  same  region. 
For  instance,  to  quote  Professor  Lowes, 
"Into  the  Sandy  Sea  itself  flows,  three 
days  of  the  week,  a  river  of  stones  with- 
out water,  impassable  while  its  flow  con- 
tinues. Beyond  it  lies  another  river, 
whose  sands  are  mere  precious  stones ;  or 
sometimes  this  River  of  Gems  flows 
through  the  Sandy  Sea,  and  is  indeed  the 
Sabbatic  River,  flowing  six  days  and 
resting  the  seventh,  which  keeps  the  ten 
tribes  of  the  Children  of  Israel  from 
crossing  into  the  land  of  Prester  John. 
And  in  one  part  of  the  desert  where  the 
sea  lies  is  a  people  with  round  feet,  like 
horses'  hoofs ;  and  in  another  part  is  the 
land  of  Femenye  itself,"  a  land  where 
none  but  women  dwell,  and  they  are 
"very  stark  and  cruel ;"  and  no  man  dare 
bide  more  than  an  hour. 

THE  SEA  OF  SAND 

Strange  as  these  stories  sound,  they  are 
only  slight  perversions  of  the  truth. 
During  a  visit  to  the  Lop  Basin  in 
1905-6  the  writer  observed  facts  which 
may  perhaps  explain  all  of  them.  For 
instance,  when  first  one  sees  Chinese 
women  of  high  class  their  diminutive 
feet  are  strangely  suggestive  of  the  hoofs 
of  animals.  As  to  the  fable  of  the  land 
of  Femenye,  there  is  nothing  now  to  give 
rise  to  it  directly.  Marco  Polo  relates, 
however,  that  in  his  day  in  the  region  of 
Hami,  not  many  hundred  miles  from 
Lop-Nor,  none  but  women  were  found  in 
the  villages  when  caravans  arrived.  The 
men  departed  in  order  that  the  travelers 
might  be  more  comfortable,  and  might 
be  the  more  ready  to  pay  for  entertain- 
ment. Even  today  the  people  of  Hami 
possess  customs  which  seem  to  be  a 
reminiscence  of  the  ancient  habit. 

Other  portions  of  the  old  accounts  are 
equally  explicable.  The  Lop  Basin,  in 
the  very  center  of  Asia,  is  a  great  depres- 
sion, 1,400  miles  long  from  east  to  west 
and  400  wide.  Around  it  lies  a  ring  of 


lofty  plateaus  from  10,000  to  20,000  feet 
high.  At  their  base  is  a  ring  of  piedmont 
gravel,  almost  destitute  of  life,  and 
sloping  gently  inward  like  a  huge  beach 
from  5  to  40  miles  wide.  Then  comes 
another  ring,  the  zone  of  vegetation,, 
where  alone  there  are  plants  and  an  op- 
portunity for  human  inhabitants  other 
than  the  few  nomads  of  the  plateaus. 
Finally  within  the  zone  of  vegetation  lies 
a  vast  desert  area  about  1,000  miles  long 
and  250  wide.  Its  western  three-quar- 
ters consist  of  a  veritable  Sea  of  Sand, 
the  Takla-makan  desert,  yellow  or  gray 
on  the  edges,  pink  in  the  inner  portions. 
Row  after  row  of  almost  impassable  sand 
dunes  has  been  piled  up  by  the  wind  to 
heights  of  full  500  feet  in  places.  The 
smallest  dunes  often  move  forward 
hundreds  of  feet  in  a  year  in  the  direction 
of  the  prevailing  winds ;  the  largest 
scarcely  move  at  all.  The  sand  is  most 
beautiful,  with  its  graceful  sweep  of  wavy 
dunes  and  ripples,  but  the  natives  hate 
and  fear  it.  It  has  proved  the  grave  of 
many  a  native  gone  mad  with  thirst  in 
the  vain  search  for  the  gold  supposed  to 
lie  hidden  in  sand-buried  ruins. 

A  few  rivers  flow  into  the  desert  of 
Takla-makan.  Most  of  them  soon  wither 
to  nothing.  All  are  very  variable,  and 
some,  such  as  the  Vash  Sheri,  flow  in 
raging,  impassable  torrents  during  sunny 
weather  in  summer,  but  dry  up  when 
cloudy  days  among  the  mountains  pre- 
vent the  melting  of  snow.  The  dry 
beds  of  these  "Sabbatic"  streams  form 
veritable  "rivers  of  stones."  In  certain 
cases  one  might  almost  say  with  the  old 
chronicler  that  there  are  streams  "whose 
sands  are  mere  precious  stones."  When 
the  Khotan  and  Keriya  rivers  are  low, 
crowds  of  natives  go  out  from  the  oases 
to  dig  in  the  gravel  of  the  river-bed  for 
jade,  one  of  the  most  highly  prized  of 
Chinese  precious  stones.  Gold  also  is 
found  in  the  upper  parts  of  the  beds  of 
the  Keriya  and  other  rivers. 

THE  SEA  OF  SALT 

East  of  the  Sea  of  Sand  there  lies  a 
Sea  of  Salt,  the  bed  of  the  ancient  Lake  of 


MEDIEVAL  TALES  OF  THE  LOP  BASIN  29 


Photos  by  Ellsworth  Huntington 


A  LOPLIK   HOUSE  OF  REEDS 
LOPLIK    WOMEN    AND   CHILDREN 


292 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


Lop-Nor.     Today  the  lake  is  merely  a 
marsh,  fed  by  the  Tarim  River,  and  filled 


with  huge  reeds  12  or  15  feet  high.  Near 
the  mouth  of  the  river,  where  alone  the 
water  is  fresh  enough  to 
§  support  life,  the  Lopliks 
f  have  planted  their  vil- 
lages of  reeds.  For- 
ts merly,  according  to  their 
•5  own  account,  they  lived 
§  wholly  on  fish  and  birds 
=  caught  in  the  open  lanes 
~  and  pools  of  the  swamp, 
where  the  fishermen  still 
I  paddle  their  canoes  of 
-  hollowed  poplar.  They 
cannot  go  far  to  the 
i>ast,  for  there  the 
swamp  grows  more  and 
more  saline,  until  finally 


plain  of  salt,  the  bed  of 
the  expanded  lake  of 
former  times. 

The  old  bed  of  Lop- 
Nor  is  one  of  the  most 
absolute  deserts  in  the 
world.  In  January,  1906, 
the  writer  explored  this 
hitherto  unknown  waste, 
where  even  the  hardy 
natives  never  venture. 
For  five  days  the  cara- 
van stumbled  wearily 
over  a  sea  of  rock-salt 
broken  into  huge  poly- 
gons 10  or  12  feet  in 
diameter,  which  had 
buckled  up  around  the 
edges  to  a  height  of 
from  one  to  three  feet. 
It  was  like  the  choppiest 
sort  of  sea  frozen  solid. 
When  we  selected  what 
appeared  to  be  soft 
places  in  which  to  pitch 
the  tents,  the  iron  tent 
pegs  bent  double.  When 
we  wanted  to  spread  our 
beds  to  sleep,  it  was 
necessary  to  hew  away 
junks  of  salt  with  an 
axe.  For  60  miles  north 
and  south  and  for  nearlv 


MEDIEVAL  TALES  OF  THE  LOP  BASIN 


293 


Photos  by   Ellsworth    Huntington 

CHAXTOS  OF  THE  OASIS  OF   KHOTAN   GATHERED  FOR  THE   WEEKLY   SUMMER   FETE    rX 
HONOR  OF   THE   LIFE-GIVING   RIVER 

The  woman  in  the  foreground  (right)  suffers  from  goitre,  a  common  malady,  said  to  be  due 
to  malicious  genii  who  grip  people  by  the  throat  while  they  are  sleeping 


294          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


Photos  by  Ellsworth  Huntington 


THE  OASIS  OF  KHOTAN 


Entrance  to  the  Shrine  of  Imam  Jafir  Sadik  in  the  southern  part  of  the  Takla-makan 
Desert.  A  hundred  yards  from  this  gate  one  enters  sand  like  that  of  the  upper  photograph  on 
page  288.  The  Shrine  is  near  the  end  of  the  Niya  River. 


THE  KEY  TO  THE  PACIFIC 


295 


200  east  and  west  there  is  absolutely  not 
a  sign  of  any  living  thing. 

It  is  relatively  but  a  little  while  since 
Lop-Nor  was  much  larger  than  now  and 
expanded  to  such  a  size  that  most,  if  not 
all,  of  the  old  bed  was  covered  by  water, 
as  is  proved  by  the  location  of  ancient 
roads  and  beaches.  At  the  time  of  Christ, 
as  the  writer  has  shown  in  "The  Pulse 
of  Asia,"  the  lake  appears  to  have  been 
of  large  dimensions.  Then  it  diminished 
in  size,  and  about  five  centuries  later  was 
probably  as  small  or  smaller  than  it  now 
is.  Later  it  expanded,  and  with  varying 
fluctuations  remained  comparatively  large 
until  about  1600  A.  D.  Now  it  has  once 
more  diminished,  and  the  people  who 
formerly  were  supported  by  it  have 
largely  died  off.  A  century  or  two  ago 
they  used  to  carry  fish  two  or  three  hun- 
dred miles  eastward  to  the  Chinese  cities 
where  Nestorian  Christians  lived  in  the 
days  of  Marco  Polo  and  earlier.  Now 
the  desert  has  become  so  rigorous 


and  the  fish  have  so  decreased  in  number 
that  the  traffic  has  been  given  up.  The 
writer  of  the  Letters  of  Prester  John 
was  almost  right  when  he  said  that  fish 
were  procured  from  the  Sea  of  Sand. 
They  certainly  came  from  the  border  be- 
tween it  and  the  Sea  of  Salt. 

Further  details  might  be  added  show- 
ing that  the  statements  in  the  Letters 
could  only  have  been  written  by  a  man 
who  had  some  knowledge  of  Central 
Asia,  although  his  information  may  have 
been  much  distorted.  Enough  has  been 
said  to  show  that  in  Chaucer's  day  and 
earlier  the  Lop  Basin  was  by  no  means 
an  entirely  unknown  land.  It  is  a  con- 
tinual surprise  to  mankind  to  find  how 
wide  a  knowledge  was  possessed  by 
earlier  generations. 

*  For  further  information  on  this  part  of  the 
world,  the  reader  is  referred  to  "The  Pulse  of 
Asia:"  a  journey  in  Central  Asia,  illustrating 
the  geographic  basis  of  history.  By  Ellsworth 
Huntington.  Pp.  415.  Illustrated.  New  York: 
Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.  1907.  $3.50. 


THE   KEY   TO   THE   PACIFIC 


BY  HON.  GEORGE  C.  PERKINS 

UNITED  STATES  SENATOR  FROM  CALIFORNIA 


THE  importance  of  the  Hawaiian 
Islands  to  the  Pacific  Coast 
states  is  supreme.  Those  states 
in  the  future  will  rely  more  and  more 
for  their  prosperity  upon  the  trade  with 
the  Orient  across  the  Pacific,  and  with 
the  East  and  Europe  through  the  Panama 
Canal.  That  there  may  be  a  guarantee 
that  this  commerce  shall  endure  and  in- 
crease in  volume,  the  United  States  must 
be  at  least  the  equal  in  naval  power  of 
any  nation  using  those  waters  for  the 
transportation  of  goods;  and  a  part  of 
the  power  of  a  navy  is  supplied  by  its 
"bases,  from  which  all  exposed  points  can 
be  best  watched  and  whence  aid  can  be 
most  quickly  sent. 

As  such  a  base  the  Hawaiian  Islands 
present  advantages  to  us  which  have  no 


counterparts  elsewhere  in  the  Pacific. 
Lying  within  easy  steaming  distance  of 
our  Pacific  coast,  as  naval  vessels  are  to- 
day constructed,  they  afford  a  point  from 
which  the  whole  North  Pacific  Ocean  can 
be  patrolled  by  cruisers,  and  from  which 
the  commerce  of  the  Panama  Canal  can 
be  protected.  They  afford  a  strategic 
point  whose  vast  significance  can  be  re- 
alized best  by  supposing  the  islands  in  the 
hands  of  a  hostile  power  engaged  in  war 
with  us.  From  that  point  the  enemy 
could  send  out  cruisers  to  sweep  from  the 
sea  the  commerce  of  the  Pacific  ports 
and  of  the  canal,  while  it  would  afford  a 
base  of  operations  for  attacks  on  our 
Pacific  Coast  ports,  as  well  as  on  the 
Canal  Zone. 

With  these  islands  in  the  hands  of  an 


296          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


SSROADS  OF 


enemy,  it  is  doubtful  whether  we  could 
control  the  canal  for  a  day,  while  the  en- 
tire coast  line  of  the  Pacific  states  and  the 
bays  and  harbors  of  our  rapidly  growing 
Alaska  would  be  in  constant  expecta- 
tion of  a  hostile  descent.  For  the  de- 
fense of  our  Pacific  coast  and  its  com- 
merce, therefore,  the  Hawaiian  Islands 
are  vital,  and  this  fact  is  recognized,  I 
think,  by  every  one  who  has  given  the 
matter  careful  attention. 

In  addition  to  the  strategic  relation  to 
the   Pacific   coast  of  the   United   States, 


which  Hawaii  possesses,  it  has  a  similar 
relation  to  our  island  possessions  further 
west — Guam  and  the  Philippines.  Hawaii 
and  Guam  are  the  ocean  stations  of  the 
American  cable  between  the  United 
States  and  our  possessions  on  the 
coast  of  Asia,  and  as  such  are  of  vast 
importance  in  any  scheme  of  defense  of 
the  Philippines  or  of  the  Pacific  states. 
This  line  is  of  the  greatest  use  to  our 
commerce,  and  its  safety  can  be. assured 
only  through  means  of  defending  its 
island  stations  against  hostile  attack. 


THE  KEY  TO  THE  PACIFIC 


297 


And  that  commerce,  which  will  continue 
to  grow  as  the  years  pass,  is  not  alone 
with  progressive  Japan  and  teeming 
China,  but  with  our  own  fertile  islands  on 
the  Asiatic  coast  and  with  the  great 
English-speaking  colonies  of  Great 
Britain  in  New  Zealand  and  Australia. 
In  1893  our  greatest  authority  on  the  sea 
power  and  naval  strategy,  Captain  A.  T. 
Mahan,  wrote  with  reference  to  the  pro- 
posed annexation  of  Hawaii : 

"To  any  one  viewing  a  map  that  shows 
the  full  extent  of  the  Pacific  . 
two  circumstances  will  be  strikingly  and 
immediately  apparent.  He  will  see  at  a 
glance  that  the  Sandwich  Islands  stand 
by  themselves  in  a  state  of  comparative 
isolation,  amid  a  vast  expanse  of  sea ; 
and,  again,  that  they  form  the  center  of  a 
large  circle  whose  radius  is  approxi- 
mately the  distance  from  Honolulu  to 
San  Francisco  .  .  .  this  is  substan- 
tially the  same  distance  as  from  Honolulu 
to  the  Gilbert,  Marshall,  Samoan,  and  So- 
ciety Islands,  all  under  European  control 
except  Samoa,  in  which  we  have  a  part 
influence. 

"To   have  a   central   position   such   as 
this,   and   to   be   alone,   having   no   rival 
are   conditions   that  at  once  fix 
the  attention    of    the    strategist     . 
But  to  this  striking  combination  is  to  be 
added    the    remarkable    relations    borne 
to  the  great  commercial   routes 
traversing  this  vast  expanse. 

"Too  much  stress  cannot  be  laid  upon 
the  immense  disadvantages  to  us  of  any 
maritime  enemy  having  a  coaling  station 
well  within  2,500  miles,  as  this  is,  of 
every  point  of  our  coast  line  from  Puget 
Sound  to  Mexico.  Were  there  many 
others  available  we  might  find  it  difficult 
to  exclude  them  all.  There  is,  however, 
but  the  one.  Shut  out  from  the  Sand- 
wich Islands  as  a  coal  base,  an  enemy  is 
thrown  back  for  supplies  of  fuel  to  dis- 
tances of  3,500  or  4,000  miles — or  be- 
tween 7,000  and  8,000  going  and  com- 
ing— an  impediment  to  sustained  mari- 
time operations  well  nigh  prohibitive 
.  .  .  It  is  rarely  that  so  important  a 
factor  in  the  attack  or  defense  of  a  coast 
line — of  a  sea  frontier — is  concentrated 


in  a  single  position,  and  the  circumstance 
renders  doubly  imperative  upon  us  to 
secure  it  if  we  righteously  can." 

Hawaii  is  on  the  track  of  probably  all 
the  trade  which  the  Pacific  Coast  states 
have  with  the  rest  of  the  world,  and 
therefore,  as  a  strategic  point,  it  is  of 
supreme  importance  that  it  be  joined  to 
us  "by  hooks  of  steel"  which  it  would 
take  the  navies  of  the  world  to  break. 

The  relation  of  a  strategic  point  like 
Hawaii  to  the  safety  of  the  nation  is  illus- 
trated by  the  relation  of  Gibraltar  and 
Malta  to  the  safety  of  Great  Britain.  The 
control  of  the  Mediterranean  is  essential 
to  England,  as  thereby  she  dominates  the 
coasts  of  all  the  adjacent  countries  and 
controls  hostile  movements.  "If,"  writes 
Lord  Brassey,  "we  are  resolved  to  re- 
tain our  hold  on  the  Mediterranean,  it  is 
imperatively  necessary  that  our  two  naval 
bases  at  Malta  and  Gibraltar  should  be 
made  secure  from  attack  and  efficient  for 
the  repair  and  protection  of  the  fleet.  In 
Malta  and  Gibraltar  we  hold  strategical 
positions  of  the  utmost  importance." 
They  are  of  utmost  importance  because 
they  control  the  trade  route  through  the 
Suez  Canal,  dominate  the  coasts  of 
what  may  at  some  time  be  hostile  na- 
tions, and  render  unnecessary  the  con- 
stant presence  in  the  Mediterranean  of  a 
fleet  of  overwhelming  strength.  That 
strength  may  be  safely  confided  to  the 
channel  and  home  fleets,  which,  with 
bases  in  that  sea,  can  at  any  time  secure 
control  of  it. 

"If  we  abandon  the  Mediterranean." 
says  Lord  Brassey,  "we  cease  to  be  a 
first-class  power  in  Europe.  .  .  . 
Upon  a  consideration  of  all  the  circum- 
stances, it  is  clear  that  the  dignity,  the 
wealth,  and  the  influence  of  England  for 
peace  depend  on  the  retention  of  a  para- 
mount position  as  a  naval  power  in  the 
Mediterranean.  We  have  that  position 
now,  and  the  recent  manifestations  of 
popular  sentiment  have  shown  that  we 
are  resolved  to  keep  it."  In  that  last 
sentence  substitute  for  the  words  "Eng- 
land" and  "Mediterranean"  the  words 
"United  States"  and  "Pacific"  and  see  if 
it  will  not  apply  with  peculiar  aptness  to 


298 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


our  own  position  on  the  greatest  of  the 
world's  oceans.  I  think  it  expresses  the 
present  situation  with  exactness,  and  is 
an  unanswerable  argument  in  behalf  of 
securing  to  the  United  States  the  Ha- 
waiian Islands  as  Great  Britain  has  se- 
cured to  herself  Gibraltar  and  Malta. 

These  islands  would  not  long  remain 
ours,  in  case  of  war  with  a  sea  power,  if 
they  remain  in  the  condition  in  which 
they  now  are.  Gibraltar  and  Malta  are 
the  strongest  fortresses  in  Europe.  So 
should  Hawaii  be  the  strongest  fortress 
in  the  Pacific.  The  President  recognizes 
this,  and  in  his  latest  annual  address  rec- 
ommends an  appropriation  for  the  forti- 
fication of  Pearl  Harbor.  The  War  De- 
partment also  recognizes  it,  and  recom- 
mends the  appropriation  of  $1,100,000 
with  which  to  continue  the  necessary 
work.  That  this  work  should  go  on  with- 
out intermission  until  we  have  established 
there  an  impregnable  naval  base  goes 
without  saying.  The  only  thing  needed 
is  money,  and  I  am  sure  that  Congress 
sees  the  necessity  of  voting  liberal  appro- 
priations. 

Pearl  Harbor  is  susceptible  of  being 
made  another  Gibraltar,  where  the  larg- 
est fleet  may  safely  lie  and  where  re- 
pairs may  be  made  at  leisure.  It  con- 
sists of  an  elliptical  lagoon  8  miles  long 
by  4  wide,  with  a  depth  of  water  rang- 
ing from  30  to  130  feet.  It  is  completely 
land-locked,  preventing  surprise  attack 
from  submarines  or  torpedo  boats,  as 
well  as  from  hostile  fleets.  In  the  rear 
are  mountain  ranges  3,000  or  4,000  feet 
high,  on  the  slopes  of  which  are  the  mili- 
tary reservation,  about  10  miles  from  the 
harbor,  where  a  salubrious  climate  is  se- 
cured. Reservations  for  fortifications, 


wharves,  and  all  that  is  necessary  for  a 
first-class  naval  station  have  been  secured, 
and  this  channel  has  been  dredged  to  30 
feet,  and  may  easily  be  deepened  much 
more  and  straightened  to  insure  easier 
navigation  for  battleships,  which  work 
can  be  done,  it  is  thought,  at  an  expense 
not  exceeding  $750,000,  the  value  of  the 
customs  receipts  of  Honolulu  for  six 
months. 

General  Schofield,  in  1872,  reported  on 
Pearl  Harbor  that  "it  could  be  completely 
defended  by  inexpensive  batteries  on 
either  or  both  shores,  firing  across  a  nar- 
row channel  of  entrance.  Its  waters  are 
deep  enough  for  the  largest  vessel  of  war, 
and  its  lochs,  particularly  around  Rabbit 
Island,  are  spacious  enough  for  a  large 
number  of  vessels  to  ride  at  anchor  in 
perfect  security  against  all  storms.  Its 
shores  are  suitable  for  building  proper 
establishments  for  sheltering  the  neces- 
sary supplies  for  a  naval  establishment, 
such  as  magazines  of  ammunition,  pro- 
visions, coal,  spars,  rigging,  etc.,  while 
the  Island  of  Oahu,  upon  which  it  is  situ- 
ated, could  furnish  .  fresh  provisions, 
meats,  fruits,  and  vegetables  in  large 
quantities." 

Too  much  stress  cannot  be  given  to 
the  fact  that  if  Pearl  Harbor  is  to  be  for- 
tified successfully  the  work  must  be  done 
in  time  of  peace.  When  war  comes  it 
would  be  too  late,  and  woe  to  us  if  we 
are  not  prepared  for  defense  as  well  as 
for  attack.  It  behooves  Congress,  there- 
fore, to  give  special  attention  now  to  the 
necessities  of  Pearl  Harbor,  and  to  liber- 
ally provide  the  means  by  which  it  may 
stand  forever  the  strongest  bulwark 
which  we  possess  in  the  western  ocean. 


HAWAII    FOR   HOMES 

BY  H.  P.  WOOD 


MUCH  has  been  written  about  the 
charming  climate    of    Hawaii, 
the  beautiful  scenery,  and  the 
smooth   seas   to  the   coral-fringed   Para- 


dise;  and  now  that  a  struggle  for  the 
mastery  of  the  Pacific,  that  ocean  of  such 
great  potentialities,  is  on  among  the  na- 
tions of  the  earth,  it  is  seen  that  Hawaii, 


HAWAII  FOR  HOMES 


299 


from  its  strategic  position,  must  soon  be- 
come a  great  military  stronghold,  prob- 
ably the  greatest  in  the  world.  Certain 
it  is  that  Pearl  Harbor,  on  the  Island  of 
Oahu,  near  the  city  of  Honolulu,  will  be 
rapidly  developed  as  America's  mid- 
Pacific  naval  base,  the  entire  island  of 
Oahu  being  practically  converted  into  a 
vast  military  encampment.  The  protec- 
tion of  the  Pacific  coast  and  our  prestige 
as  a  nation  demand  that  this  be  done. 

Hawaii's  future  prosperity,  however, 
is  not  dependent  upon  its  unequaled 
climate,  beautiful  scenery,  or  strategic 
position,  but  will  be  due  to  the  fact  that 
here  is  found,  as  possibly  nowhere  else 
on  the  face  of  the  globe,  all  that  goes  to 
make  perfect  home  conditions — a  place 
where  a  man  with  a  few  acres  of  land 
can  earn  a  good  living  for  himself  and 
family  and  provide  for  a  comfortable  old 
age,  surrounded  by  all  that  tends  to  make 
life  enjoyable. 

Of  Hawaii  it  has  been  well  said:  "A 
•section  able  to  produce  such  a  variety  of 
tropical  articles  as  may  be  produced  in 
the  Hawaiian  Islands,  and  having  free 
"hospitality  of  its  citizens  by  those  who 
have  been  privileged  to  voyage  over 
.access  to  a  market  demanding  such  enor- 
mous quantities  of  those  various  articles 
as  does  the  market  of  the  United  States, 
ought  to  become  not  merely  prosperous, 
as  it  already  is,  but  one  of  the  most  pros- 
perous and  perhaps  the  most  prosperous 
of  all  the  tropical  communities  of  the 
world.  With  the  power  to  produce 
sugar,  of  which  the  United  States  im- 
ports more  than  one  hundred  million  dol- 
lars' worth  a  year;  with  the  power  to 
produce  coffee,  of  which  we  import  from 
seventy-five  to  one  hundred  million  dol- 
lars' worth  annually;  with  the  power  to 
grow  rubber,  of  which  we  import  fifty 
million  dollars'  worth  annually ;  with  the 
power  to  produce  tropical  fruits,  of  which 
we  import  thirty-five  million  dollars' 
worth  annually;  with  the  power  to  pro- 
duce sisal,  of  which  we  import  fifteen 
million  dollars'  worth  annually,  and  with 


the  power  to  produce  cocoa,  of  which  we 
import  nearly  ten  million  dollars'  worth 
annually,  the  possibilities  of  increased 
prosperity  in  Hawaii  seem  very  great/' 

Today  the  advantages  offered  by  Ha- 
waii are  enjoyed  by  comparatively  few 
people — about  200,000,  including  the 
alien  labor  on  the  different  plantations, 
or  say  32  persons  to  the  square  mile  for 
the  entire  area  of  6,400  square  miles. 
Switzerland,  a  bleak,  inhospitable  coun- 
try as  compared  with  Hawaii,  sustains  in 
comfort  a  population  of  3,356,000.  The 
same  number  to  the  square  mile  would 
give  the  territory  of  Hawaii  a  population 
of  1,344,000,  a  number  equal  to  that  sup- 
ported by  the  broad  plains  and  fertile 
acres  of  the  State  of  Arkansas ;  or  if  pop- 
ulated as  Italy,  Hawaii  would  have 
1,870,000  people  within  its  boundaries, 
while  Belgium's  rate  of  population  to  the 
square  mile  would  give  Hawaii  3,760,000, 
or  19  times  the  present  population. 

Hawaii  offers  room  and  opportunities 
for  many  hundred  thousands  of  home- 
seekers.  The  agricultural  colleges 
throughout  the  country  could  perform 
splendid  work  in  tropical  agriculture, 
entering  into  correspondence  with  the 
dean  of  the  College  of  Agriculture,  Hon- 
olulu, Hawaii,  and  thus  secure  reliable 
data  as  to  the  wonderful  growth  of  the 
pineapple  industry  and  the  possibilities  in 
rubber,  tobacco,  tropical  fruits,  etc.  By 
doing  this  they  would  confer  a  lasting 
benefit  upon  thousands  of  young  men 
throughout  the  country  who  are  now 
looking  around  for  openings  and  who  will 
find  in  Hawaii  just  the  opportunities  they 
are  seeking. 

The  territorial  authorities  are  most  de- 
sirous of  settling  the  islands  with  a 
citizen  class  of  small  landed  proprietors, 
and  will  gladly  welcome  all  home-build- 
ers who  are  strong  and  industrious,  able 
and  willing  to  work.  It  is  the  hope  of 
those  having  the  best  interests  of  Hawaii 
at  heart  to  make  of  the  islands  an  ideal 
American  communitv. 


WHY   NIK-KO    IS   BEAUTIFUL 


BY  J.  H.  DE  FOREST,  SENDAI,  JAPAN 


JAPAN  is  confessedly  the  most  beau- 
tiful country  in  the  world.  Every- 
where you  go  you  have  in  sight 
the  two  essentials  of  bewitching 
scenery,  mountains  of  every  size  and 
shape  indented  by  picturesque  canyons 
and  lovely  valleys,  all  based  on  water  in 
bays  and  inlets  and  ocean.  It  is  a  land 
of  perpetual  beauty,  conspicuously  cen- 
tral to  which  is  the  peerless  Fuji,  the  only 
mountain  on  the  globe  that  rises  12,365 
feet  in  one  impressive  unbroken  curve 
from  the  ocean. 

But  hidden  among  all  this  scenic 
grandeur  the  one  great  park  of  wooded 
mountains  around  a  crater  lake  that  with 
foreigners  and  natives  alike  takes  the 
prize  is  the  Nik-ko  region.  Kek-ko  is 
the  Japanese  word  for  superlatively 
splendid,  so  that  all  through  Japan  these 
two  words  are  inseparably  mated — Nik-ko 
and  Kek-ko.  Don't  say  Kek-ko  until 
you've  seen  Nik-ko.  You  have  no  suf- 
ficient knowledge  of  the  splendid  until 
you  have  visited  this  park  of  splendor.  If 
you  try  to  analyze  Nik-ko's  splendor,  one 
captivating  feature  is  the  avenue  of 
mighty  cryptomerias  that  for  a  dozen 
miles  forms  a  lofty  Gothic  archway  lead- 
ing up  to  the  village  2,000  feet  above  the 
ocean.  Another  important  element  is  the 
waterfalls  and  cascades  that  burst  from 
the  sides  of  the  wooded  mountains  or 
tumble  in  amazing  confusion  over  pre- 
cipitous rocks  into  the  dark,  narrow  val- 
leys. Yet  one  more  element  is  the  ex- 
ceptionally large  crater  lake,  Chuzenji, 
4,385  feet  up  in  the  clouds,  surrounded 
by  the  old  crater  walls,  portions  of  which 
are  now  gently  sloping  and  covered  with 
dense  forests,  while  on  another  section 
rises  the  dead  peak  of  the  last  volcano 
that  helps  to  make  Nik-ko  and  its  vicin- 
ity so  wonderfully  beautiful — Nantai- 
zan. 

But  nature's  work  has  been  richly  sup- 
plemented by  man's  hand  in  beautifying 
this  paradise.  There  is  the  red  bridge  of 


one  span  (80  feet),  which  is  reserved  ex- 
clusively for  His  Majesty  the  Emperor. 
When  General  Grant  visited  Nik-ko  as 
the  guest  of  the  nation,  this  sacred  bridge 
was  opened  for  him,  but  he  modestly  de- 
clined to  cross  the  Imperial  bridge, 
thereby  winning  the  deep  reverence  and 
affection  of  the  people.  Even  the  present 
Crown  Prince  a  few  years  ago  refused  to 
cross  the  bridge,  preferring  to  identify 
himself  with  the  people  by  taking  the 
common  bridge  just  below. 

Beyond  the  bridge,  amid  tall  crypto- 
merias, is  a  historic  Buddhist  temple, 
whose  sweeping  double  roof  is  in  perfect 
harmony  with  its  surroundings.  You 
cannot  but  gaze  at  it  whenever  it  appears 
in  sight.  A  little  farther  on  is  the  mau- 
soleum of  leyasu,  the  greatest  statesman 
of  feudal  Japan,  under  whose  orders  the 
political  Christianity  of  the  Catholics  was 
stamped  out  in  fearful  slaughters  of  be- 
lievers and  the  country  closed  against 
foreign  intercourse.  High  above  the 
mausoleums  of  leyasu  and  his  grandson 
lemitsu,  on  a  rocky  formation,  is  leyasu's 
massive  bronze  tomb. 

But  apart  from  what  man  has  done, 
what  makes  this  region  so  enchantingly 
beautiful  ?  What  is  the  secret  of  this 
beauty  ?  This  was  the  question  that  con- 
tinuously challenged  me  as  I  spent  a  few 
weeks  in  this  environment.  In  general 
it  may  be  said  that  Japan's  beauty  is  of  a 
different  type  from  much  of  our  Euro- 
pean and  American  beauty.  New  Eng- 
land, for  example,  with  its  shores,  its 
mountains,  its  innumerable  lakes,  all  near 
sea-level,  is  indeed  beautiful,  but  its 
rounded  hills,  its  moraines,  and  lakelets 
are  all  the  work  of  immense  glaciers. 
Japan,  however,  is  wholly  the  child  of 
volcanoes  and  earthquakes.  Hence  the 
long  curving  slopes  of  many  of  the 
mountains ;  the  abrupt  and  frightful  con- 
tortions of  portions  of  the  mountain 
scenery ;  the  marvelously  entrancing 
crater  lakes  far  up  in  the  skies.  Any  one 


WHY  NIK-KO  is  BEAUTIFUL 


301 


THE  MONSEKI  OF  RINNO  TEMPLE,  ABBOT  HIKOSAKA 


used  to  our  glacial  beauty  is  at  first  sight 
surprised  and  captivated  by  Japan's  vol- 
canic beauty. 

Now  Nik-ko  seems  to  have  gathered 
into  its  own  region  all  the  beauty  pos- 
sible under  volcanic  conditions.  The 
long  egg-shaped  Lake  Chuzenji  was  once 
the  crater  of  a  horrible  volcano.  It  blew 
high  in  air  from  its  huge  mouth  the  froth 
of  its  lavas  and  buried  deep  the  whole 


region  around  with  its  so-called  ashes. 
Then  its  lavas  rising  in  the  crater  broke 
through  the  weak  tufa  walls  and  flowed 
in  red-hot  streams  over  the  coarse  ashes 
in  every  possible  direction,  baking  them 
into  tough,  porous  rocks.  Later  on 
another  prolonged  blast  of  coarse  ashes 
and  rocks  would  bury  the  lavas  scores  of 
feet  deep,  only  to  be  again  overflowed  by 
boiling  streams  of  lava,  until  the  whole 


302          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


-THE  WIND  GOD  IN  IEMITSU  S  MAUSOLEUM 

region  became  alternate  strata  of  lava 
and  tufa,  broken  here  and  there  by  earth- 
quakes of  tremendous  power.  And  out 
of  this  frightful  desolation  and  disorder 
has  come  the  exceptional  beauty  of 
Nik-ko !  Every  waterfall  there  tumbles 


off  from  a  lava  bed,  and  wherever  pos- 
sible cuts  down  through  the  underlying 
tufa  and  flows  along  on  the  next  lower 
lava  shelf. 

It  adds  tenfold  to  the  enjoyment  of 
seeing  the  finest  waterfall  in  Japan, 
Kegon,  if  you  only  notice  how  it  was 
made.  It  is  one  huge  spout  of  water 
about  20  feet  in  diameter  jumping  about 
250  feet  into  the  pool  below.  From  top 
to  bottom  it  is  white  with  foam,  and,  as 
it  falls,  from  its  edges  shoot  off  comet-like 
bunches  of  water  with  spreading  tails  of 
thinner  foam,  until  the  whole  has  passed 
the  lava  cliff  a  hundred  feet  thick.  When 
to  the  beauty  of  this  magnificent  column 
of  water-foam  is  added  the  beauty  of  a 
fringe  of  baby  waterfalls  bursting  from 
the  underlying  tufa,  and  half  encircling 
the  giant  spout,  they  all  together  take  the 
final  plunge  of  a  hundred  feet  more :  and 
when  the  gorgeous  foliage  of  the  ravine 
bends  across  the  gorge,  so  that  against 
this  spotless  white  foam  you  can  see  the 
shapes  of  the  branches  and  leaves,  you 
have  a  picture  the  memory  of  which 
abides  forever  with  every  lover  of  nature. 

In  descending  the  ravine  to  the  place 
where  Kegon  looks  its  best,  we  pass  close 
to  one  of  the  tufa  strata,  from  the  holes 
of  which  shoot  out  water  enough  to  make 
a  powerful,  roaring  stream,  and  this  cas- 
cade in  turn  makes  another  famed  water- 
fall called  Haku-un,  the  White  Cloud. 
The  photograph  plainly  shows  the  thick 
lava  above  and  the  innumerable  streams 
breaking  out  where  the  lava  meets  the 
tufa. 

Coming  down  from  Chuzenji  to 
Nik-ko  any  one  can  see  lavas  and  tufas 
alternating  where  the  mountain  sides 
have  been  denuded  by  storms  or  broken 
by  earthquakes.  I  saw  seven  such  strata 
in  one  place,  and  it  was  that  sight  which 
gave  me  the  key  to  the  beautv  of  Nik-ko. 
At  one  of  the  tea-houses  on  the  road  are 
seen  two  charming  falls  in  the  distant 
ravines  tumbling  off  thin  lava  beds.  They 
have  cut  through  one  tufa  bed  and  are 
flowing  along  on  the  lava  bed,  from  which 
they  tumble  down  to  another.  The 
stream  that  flows  through  Nik-ko  is  con- 


WHY  NIK-KO  is  BEAUTIFUL 


303 


NEAR  IKYASU  S   MAUSOLEUM 

On  the  way  to  Chuzenji  is  a  graveyard  so  overshadowed  with  cryptomerias  that  it  is  hard 
to  get  good  photos.  This  avenue  is  formed  by  the  lofty  monolithic  gravestones  of  the  illus- 
trious Samurai,  who  had  the  Shogun's  permission  to  commit  hara  kiri  in  order  to  accompany 
their  beloved  leyasu  on  his  journey  of  death. 


fined  in  narrow  and  winding  lava  chan- 
nels just  above  the  town,  where  the 
swollen  waters  boil  with  frightful  noise. 
It  is  one  of  the  sights  of  Nik-ko  to  watch 
the  violent  threshing  of  the  water  there 
upon  the  twisted  sides  and  cavities  of  the 
unyielding  lava.  Just  below  this  hell- 
gate,  called  Gamman-ga-fuchi,  is  the  Im- 
perial bridge,  one  of  the  charms  of  which 
to  me  is  that  its  massive  stone  posts  rest 
on  the  last  appearance  of  the  lava  beds 
that  flowed  down  from  an  unknown  vol- 
cano of  the  distant  past.  Far  up  the  hill 
to  the  left  the  tomb  of  leyasu  stands  on 
the  highest  part  of  this  same  ancient  lava 
stratum. 

The  artificial  beauty  of  Nik-ko  centers 
around  the  Rinno  temple  and  the  mauso- 


leums of  leyasu  and  lemitsu.  To  meet 
the  two  men  who  hold  the  highest  places 
in  the  sacred  enclosures,  and  talk  with 
them  about  the  intensely  interesting  his- 
tory of  this  region,  is  a  real  education. 
Being  favored  through  our  (then)  lega- 
tion with  letters  of  introduction  from  the 
Home  Minister,  I  was  shown  the  national 
treasures  of  the  Buddhist  temple  and  of 
the  leyasu  mausoleum.  This  is  no  place 
to  go  into  details,  but  I  was  so  cordially 
met  by  these  gentlemen  that  I  wish  to  add 
to  this  partial  description  of  Nik-ko  the 
faces  of  these  distinguished  officials  from 
photographs  they  kindly  gave  me.  The 
position  of  high  priest,  or  abbot,  in 
Rinno-ji  is  an  Imperial  appointment.  The 
young  princes  and  princesses  who  spend 


304          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


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BETWEEN    THK    VOLCANOES    ASA  MA    AND    SHI  RANK 

The  peak  of  Shirane  appears  in  the  distance,  where  a  crater  lake  is  being  made.  The 
exterior  of  the  bath-house  whose  interior  is  shown  in  the  next  photos.  Hundreds  of  people 
afflicted  with  syphilis  and  leprosy  gather  at  this  famous  hot  spring. 


the  summer  at  Nik-ko  used  to  go  every 
morning  to  the  court  of  the  temple  and 
'"worship"  the  souls  of  the  officers  who 
died  in  the  Russian  war.  The  alcove  be- 
fore which  they  knelt  was  rilled  with  the 
photographs  of  these  brave  and  loyal 
men.  The  distinguished  title  of  the 
Abbot  Hiko-saka  is  Monseki,  which  con- 
veys the  meaning  of  Imperial  appoint- 
ment. It  was  in  this  temple  court  that 
General  and  Mrs.  Grant  were  entertained, 
and  as  in  those  early  days  (about  1878) 
there  was  no  foreign  hotel  in  Nik-ko,  and 
therefore  no  such  thing  as  a  bedstead,  the 
priest  had  a  bedstead  made  worthy  of  a 
military  hero.  There  is  no  scrimping  of 
timber  in  its  frame,  and,  since  springs 
were  wholly  unknown,  they  wove  the 
"bedstead  with  bands  of  plate  iron !  A 
mate  to  this  bedstead  was  made  on  the 
same  heroic  plan  for  Her  Excellency 
Mrs.  Grant.  When  this  famous  couple 
went  to  bed,  of  course  they  found  over 
the  iron  network  a  pile  of  soft  silk  futons 
a.  foot  thick. 


.  The  official  chief  of  the  Shogun  shrines 
is  Baron  Naka-yama,  one  of  the  highest 
in  rank  among  Shintoists.  It  is  well  to 
remember  that  Shintoism  is  not  now 
called  a  religion  by  the  Japanese ;  it  is  a 
cult.  No  government  has  ever  handled  the 
perplexing  question  of  church  and  state 
so  admirably  as  has  that  of  Japan.  See- 
ing that  Shintoism  with  the  "worship"  of 
the  Imperial  ancestors  and  national  heroes 
would  surely  lead  to  a  clash  with  Chri>- 
tianity,  Shintoism  was  officially  changed 
from  the  grade  of  a  religion  to  that  of 
a  cult  which  concerns  Japan  alone.  This 
step  leaves  it  possible  for  a  Christian  to 
"worship"  at  the  shrines  just  as  we 
worship  when  we  take  off  our  hats  at  the 
tomb  of  Washington.  In  the  course  of 
a  delightful  conversation  I  asked  the 
Baron,  "Is  there  any  objection  to  a  Shin- 
toist  becoming  a  Christian?"  He  replied 
with  a  smile,  "None  whatever." 

Nik-ko  is  a  great  national  center  of 
religion  and  reverence  in  an  environment 
of  marvelous  beautv. 


306 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


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THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


VOL.  XIX,  No.  5 


WASHINGTON 


MAY,  1908 


THE 

'AT: 


WHERE   EAST   MEETS   WEST 

Visit  to  Picturesque  Dalmatia,  Montenegro  and  Bosnia 

BY  MARIAN  CRUGER  COFFIN 

With  photographs  by  the  author 


THE  Dalmatian  coast  deserves  its 
reputation  for  picturesque  beauty. 
The  great  limestone  mountains — 
practically  bare  of  vegetation  and  culmi- 
nating in  peaks  over  5,000  feet  high,  de- 
scend to  the  sea  in  an  almost  unbroken 
line,  while  a  continual  fringe  of  islands 
forms  a  buffer  between  the  coast  and  the 
Adriatic  from  Fiume  to  where  the  Bocche 
di  Cattaro  lies  like  a  giant  starfish  spread 
out  upon  the  land,  cutting  deep  into  the 
mountains  with  its  great  tentacles. 

The  fertile  rivieras  lie  in  nooks  of  the 
coast,  sheltered  from  the  fierce  "Bora," 
"the  wind  of  death,"  which  in  winter 
sweeps  down  from  the  mountain  gorges 
with  terrific  force ;  these  are  practically 
the  only  cultivated  lands  in  this  desert 
country.  The  contrast  between  the 
island-studded  sea,  the  rugged  mountains, 
and  the  semi-tropical  vegetation  com- 
bined with  old-world  architecture  of  the 
cities  affords  a  picture  not  easily  for- 
gotten. 

The  interior  is  wild,  lonely,  and  im- 
pressive, and  so  barren  and  uninviting 
that  except  for  the  Falls  of  the  Kerka  it 
is  seldom  visited  by  the  traveler.  Beau- 


tiful in  the  extreme,  the  falls,  or  rather 
cascades,  gain  an  added  interest  from 
their  source  being  one  of  those  under- 
ground rivers  not  uncommon  in  this  part 
of  Europe.  The  Kerka  rises  to  the  sur- 
face of  the  ground  in  the  form  of  a  blue- 
green  lake,  surrounded  by  verdure,  the 
life  and  color  appearing  like  a  miracle  in 
the  midst  of  the  desolate  hills. 

The  towns  of  the  coast  are  distinctive 
and  have  each  their  special  points  of  in- 
terest as  well  as  architectural  beauty. 
Zara  and  Sebenico  have  fine  Duomos, 
Spalato  and  Salona  are  famous  for  their 
Roman  remains,  and  indeed  much  of 
Spalato  is  built  within  the  walls  of  Dio- 
cletian's palace,  while  at  Trau  and  Ra- 
gusa  are  admirable  examples  of  medieval 
architecture,  dating  from  the  occupation 
or  influence  of  Venice. 

RAGUSA 

Ragusa  is  easily  queen  of  the  Dalma- 
tian cities.  None  can  compare  with  her  in 
beauty  of  site  or  architectural  and  his- 
torical interest.  She  has  stood  for  cen- 
turies a  sister  republic  to  Venice,  a  bul- 
wark in  Europe  against  the  Turk,  a  wise 


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•and  prosperous  state.  The  great  walls 
still  inclose  the  town  and  are  practically 
intact.  They  form  a  striking  contrast  to 
the  architectural  delicacy  of  the  public 
buildings  and  palaces  which  rise  on  the 
steeply  terraced  streets,  for  the  town  is 
built  on  a  narrow  peninsula  between  the 
mountains  and  the  sea.  On  Sundays, 
when  the  peasants  from  Canalle  come  in 
for  church  and  the  smart  Austrian  officers 
promenade  about,  the  gay  little  city  pre- 
sents an  almost  opera  bouffe  aspect,  with 
the  medieval  setting  and  the  brilliant 
crowds  flashing  with  color  and  military 
pomp. 

The  environs  are  most  lovely,  the 
wealth  of  figs,  aloes,  cypresses,  and  every 
sort  of  semi-tropical  and  rock-blooming 
plant  making  the  surrounding  country  a 
veritable  garden  in  spring  and  early 
summer.  Lacroma  and  the  other  neigh- 
boring islands  seem  fairy  isles,  too  ex- 
quisite for  human  habitation,  but  about 
the  former  hang  sad  memories  of  Prince 
Rudolph  and  Emperor  Maximillian 
and  legendary  ones  of  Richard  Coeur 
de  Lion,  for  the  old  monastery  was 
once  a  favorite  resort  of  royalty,  but  has 
since  been  restored  to  its  former  uses. 

The  morlaks  or  peasants  are  a  sturdy, 
independent  race,  mostly  of  Slav  extrac- 
tion, and  distinctly  well  to  do,  especially 
about  Spalato  and  Ragusa,  where  the  soil 
is  fertile  and  the  crops  large. 

QUAINT    COSTUMES    IN    DALMATIA 

The  tiny  Dalmatian  cap  of  scarlet  cloth, 
fialf  embroidered  in  black  with  a  black 
tassel,  is  worn  by  the  men  the  entire 
length  of  the  coast,  while  no  inhabitant 
•of  the  Peninsula  is  seen  without  the  use- 
ful bag  slung  over  one  shoulder,  of  woven 
carpet  material,  embroidered  linen,  or 
leather  studded  with  nails.  It  serves  all 
purposes — a  cradle  for  the  baby,  a  ward- 
robe for  the  family  clothes,  a  larder  for 
the  provisions,  as  well  as  a  convenient  re- 
ceptacle for  little  pigs  going  to  market! 
Except  for  these  common  features  the 
costumes  vary  in  every  district.  At  Zara 
may  be  seen  the  striking  sleeveless  scarlet 
vest  ornamented  with  silver  buttons,  while 


about  Sebenico  the  men  affect  a  curious 
waistcoat  and  jacket  of  brown  homespun, 
piped  and  trimmed  with  woolen  fringe  of 
bright  magenta  color. 

In  the  country  the  women  wear  a  heavy 
apron  of  carpet  material  heavily  fringed 
and  are  seldom  seen  without  a  distaff  in 
their  hands  as  they  ride  or  walk  to 
market.  Those  from  Canalle  are  noted 
for  their  charming  costumes  of  embroid- 
ered linen,  and  they  with  their  men  folk 
were  the  only  people  we  saw  in  the  Balk- 
ans with  adequate  head  covering,  the 
wide,  stiff  fluted  handkerchiefs  of  the 
women  and  the  straw  hats  of  the  men 
protecting  them  from  the  sun.  In  sum- 
mer the  heat  and  glare  in  these  shadeless 
lands  is  intense,  but  a  handkerchief  or  a 
stiff  brimless  cap  seems  the  fashion, 
while  for  dress  occasions  both  sexes  will 
pile  one  homespun  garment  over  another, 
for  in  the  Near  East  the  more  you  wear 
the  finer  you  are ! 

AN    UNCONQUERED    RACE 

But  if  the  people  and  the  scenery  of 
Dalmatia  are  interesting-,  those  of  Monte- 
negro are  infinitely  more  so.  A  land  of 
mountains,  apparently  without  valleys, 
and  almost  destitute  of  vegetation,  Mon- 
tenegro seems  to  have  emerged  out  of  a 
chaos  of  the  gods  to  be  primeval  rib 
of  the  world.  And,  in  keeping  with  the 
country,  is  the  proud  and  independent 
character  of  this  race,  who  have  retreated 
step  by  step  before  the  Turk  from  the  fat 
lands  they  once  held,  preferring  freedom 
in  their  rocky  fastnesses  to  soft  living 
under  the  yoke  of  Islam.  And  it  must  be 
remembered  to  their  everlasting  credit 
that  they  not  only  remained  free  when  the 
other  Slav  peoples  as  well  as  the  Greek, 
Albanian,  and  Bulgar  fell  before  the 
power  of  the  Turk,  but  that  they  main- 
tained their  independence  when  all 
Europe,  to  the  gates  of  Vienna,  trembled 
before  the  hosts  of  the  Crescent. 

Disembarking  at  Cattaro  (lying  baking 
in  the  August  sun)  after  a  wonderful 
sail  through  the  tortuous  Bocche  di 
Cattaro  or  "mouths  of  Cattaro,"  we  took 
the  waiting  carriage  and  started  on  the 


WHERE  EAST  MEETS  WEST 


Jayce  ( 

B      O     S      N      ,      A  ^      SERV1A 

\  ^  »Sarajevo\ 


SKETCH    MAP   OF   EAST   COAST   OF   ADRIATIC    SEA 


climb  up  the  mountain  wall  to  Montene- 
gro or  the  "Black  Mountain."  Cattaro 
is  the  natural  port  for  Montenegro,  but  is 
jealously  guarded  by  Austria,  and  it  was 
not  until  we  had  ascended  for  more  than 
an  hour  that  we  came  to  the  striped  black 
and  yellow  post  that  marks  the  boundary. 
Our  driver  stopped  to  water  the  horses, 
to  collect  his  revolver  (left  at  a  wayside 
hut,  as  it  is  forbidden  to  carry  weapons 
over  the  border),  and  pointed  to  his 
native  crags  above,  saying  proudly, 
"Crnagora."  We  turned  for  a  last  look 
at  the  superb  view  spread  out  below  us, 
the  sea  shimmering  in  the  distance,  and 
at  our  feet  the  land-locked  Bocche 
guarded  by  the  mighty  Orjen  and  the 
peaks  of  Herzegovina  to  the  north  and 
west. 


We  reached  Njegus  by  the  waning 
light.  This  our  first  Montenegrin  town 
was  the  birthplace  of  the  prince,  and  is  a 
village  with  one  wide  street  and  small, 
low  stone  houses.  Wherever  there  is 
sufficient  space  little  patches  of  vegetables 
are  cultivated  in  a  series  of  stone  terraces, 
built  to  keep  the  precious  soil  from  being 
swept  away  by  the  heavy  rains.  These 
little  garden  plats  give  a  curiously 
checker-board  aspect  to  the  valleys  and 
hillsides  in  contrast  to  the  wastes  of  rocks 
above. 

From  Njegus  we  climbed  steadily  up 
through  the  same  dreary  crags,  even  more 
solitary  and  impressive  in  the  moonlight, 
and  reached  the  top  of  the  pass  (3,500 
feet),  from  which  Cettinje  can  be  seen 
in  the  daylight.  Scarce  a  trace  of  habi- 


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WOMEN   NE)AR  SPALATO,  DAL  M  ATI  A 
Note  the  heavy  brocaded  apron  (see  page  312) 


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AT    ZARA,    DALMATIA 


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tation  was  to  be  seen.  We  stopped  to 
water  the  horses  at  a  wayside  hut,  wild 
young  girls  shyly  waited  on  us,  then 
passed  a  solitary  dwelling  and  heard  the 
minor  wail  of  the  one-stringed  gusle 
(the  national  musical  instrument)  and  a 
strong  bass  voice  singing  one  of  the  old 
ballads,  probably  about  the  Tzar  Lazar 
and  the  field  of  Kosovo,  or  possibly  of 
the  doings  of  the  singer's  own  immediate 
forefathers  in  a  border  fray  against  the 
hated  Albanians. 


CAPITAL  OF    MONTENEGRO 

The  Europe  we  know  is  left  far  behind. 
We  drop  suddenly  from  the  complexities 
of  modern  life  into  the  peace  and  sim- 
plicity of  the  patriarchal  system,  still  in 
force  in  this  strange  little  state  where 
east  and  west  meet  so  subtly.  Here  a 
man's  life  is  of  small  account,  but  he  will 
hold  his  honor  above  all  earthly  price, 
while  the  ambition  of  every  boy  is  to  be  a 
warrior  and  rival  the  deeds  of  the  heroes 
of  old. 

Twenty  years  ago  Cettinje  was  a  col- 
lection of  hovels.  Now  it  is  a  clean,  neat 
little  town  with  wide  streets  and  low 
stone  houses  roofed  with  red  tile.  There 
are  no  attempts  at  architectural  decora- 
tion —  all  is  plain  and  bare  and  seems  to 
have  sprung  from  the  very  soil  of  the 
mountain-locked  plain.  It  has  been  called 
a  kindergarten  capital,  and  though  but  a 
village  in  size,  conducts  itself  with  the 
importance  befitting  the  center  of  the 
country.  It  boasts  a  theater  and  the 
Prince's  very  modest  palace,  while  the 
large,  pretentious  embassies  of  Austria 
and  Russia  guard  opposite  ends  of  the 
town  like  two  great  bloodhounds  waiting 
to  pounce  on  their  prey. 

Sights,  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  word, 
there  are  none,  but  one  may  entertain 
oneself  by  bargaining  in  the  market  with 
the  handsome  girls  for  colored  strips  of 
embroidery  with  which  they  trim  their 
blouses,  chatting  with  some  one  who  has 
a  word  or  two  of  German  or  Italian, 
admiring  the  medals  of  the  older  men 
gained  in  the  last  war  with  the  Turks 
(proudly  shown  off  by  the  younger  men, 


the  wearers  modestly  deprecating  their 
own  glory),  taking  a  friendly  cup  of  cof- 
fee with  the  tailor  who  is  making  one 
a  national  costume,  or  waiting  for  a 
glimpse  of  some  member  of  the  royal 
family  to  pass  by,  possibly  the  Prince 
himself. 

But  the  amusement  of  all  others  that 
never  palled  on  us  was  watching  this 
handsome  race  airing  their  finery  in  the 
open  streets  of  Cettinje.  The  national 
costume  seems  designed  to  show  off  the 
grace  and  dignity  inherent  in  even  the 
humblest  Montenegrin — crimson  and 
gold  sparkle  in  the  sunshine,  in  dazzling 
contrast  to  the  somber  tints  of  the  en- 
circling mountains,  real  gold,  too,  which 
is  elaborately  worked  in  the  garment  by 
hand.  From  the  royal  family  down,  the 
men  wear  a  long,  wide-skirted  coat  of 
light  grey,  white,  robin's  egg  blue,  or 
dark  green  cloth,  embroidered  in  gold,  or 
dark  red,  open  wide  in  front  over  a  crim- 
son waistcoat  heavily  decorated  in  gold, 
and  confined  about  the  waist  by  a  broad 
sash  of  plaid  silk.  The  belt  is  stuck  full 
of  weapons,  knives,  pistols,  etc.,  for  our 
friend  considers  his  toilette  incomplete 
without  such  accessories,  and  indeed  one's 
eyes  become  so  accustomed  to  seeing 
every  man  a  walking  arsenal  that  on  re- 
turning to  work-a-day  Europe  people 
look  strangely  undressed!  Dark  blue 
breeches,  baggy  to  the  knee,  with  the 
leg  either  incased  in  white  homespun  and 
low  string  shoes  on  the  feet,  this  is  thor- 
oughly characteristic,  or  if  the  wearer  be 
a  bit  of  a  dandy  a  pair  of  high  black 
riding  boots  will  be  worn  instead ;  a  cane 
for  dress  occasions  and  the  cocky  stiff- 
brimmed  cap  complete  the  costume. 

A  tale  hangs  by  the  cap.  The  Montene- 
grins are  a  conservative  people  and,  like 
all  the  Serbs  of  the  P>alkans.  look  back 
to  the  days  of  the  great  Servian  Empire 
when  the  Slavs  held  most  of  the  Penin- 
sula. The  highest  point  of  glory  was 
reached  under  Stephen  Dushan,  1337- 
1356,  who  planned  to  keep  the  Turk  out 
of  Europe,  but  who  unfortunately  died 
at  the  height  of  his  career.  In  1389  the 
different  Slav  peoples  made  their  last 


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united  stand  under  Tzar  Lazar  Gubljan- 
ovich  on  the  plain  of  Kosovo.  The  day 
was  at  first  with  Tsar  Lazar,  but,  as  usual 
in  the  Peninsula,  jealousies  prevented 
a  concerted  action  and  he  was  betrayed 
by  his  son  in  law,  Vuk  Brankovich,  who 
coveted  the  crown.  He  deserted  to  the 
enemy  with  12,000  followers,  a  frightful 
slaughter  ensued,  and  the  Balkans  fell  to 
the  invader.  This  fateful  I5th  of  June  is 
a  day  of  mourning  throughout  Serb  lands 
and  the  Montenegrin  cap  is  worn  in  com- 
memoration— the  black  is  for  mourning, 
and  the  red-centered  crown  for  the  blood 
shed  on  the  field  of  Kosovo.  A  semicircle 
of  gilt  braid  encloses  the  Prince's  initials 
H.  I.,  the  circle  typifying  the  rainbow 
of  hope  that  the  Turk  will  be  driven  from 
Europe  and  the  great  Servian  Empire 
again  established. 

A    PROUD    AND    HANDSOME:    RACE 

The  dress  of  the  women  is  not  so 
gaudy  as  that  of  the  men,  though  very 
graceful.  Like  their  brothers,  they  wear 
the  national  cap  without  the  gold  braid, 
the  married  women  being  distinguished 
by  a  black  lace  veil  falling  behind.  The 
hair  is  parted  and  the  mass  of  heavy 
braids  forms  a  coronet  for  the  well-car- 
ried heads.  They  wear  a  soft,  silky 
blouse  with  open  sleeves  and  trimmed 
with  strips  of  delicate  embroidery,  a  band 
of  which  forms  the  low  collar,  then  a  red 
or  black  velveteen  bolero  heavily  braided 
in  gold,  and  over  all  a  semi-fitting,  open, 
sleeveless  coat  reaching  to  the  knees  of 
the  same  delicate  shades  as  worn  by  the 
men. 

It  would  be  hard  to  find  a  handsomer 
race;  the  men,  seldom  under  six  feet, 
strut  about  like  war  lords.  Their  only 
business  in  life  for  generations  has  been 
to  protect  their  families  from  Turkish 
raids  when  not  engaged  in  actual  warfare. 
Consequently  most  of  the  hard  work  has 
fallen  to  the  women's  share,  which  they 
cheerfully  perform,  often  carrying  heavy 
loads,  such  as  great  blocks  of  ice,  from  the 
higher  mountains  down  to  the  towns. 
Such  labor  and  the  hard  conditions  of 
life  age  them  early,  but  when  young  the 


girls  are  really  beautiful,  with  noble, 
Madonna-like  faces ;  the  type  is  rather 
mixed  in  coloring,  neither  light  nor  dark. 
We  saw  many  fine  gray  eyes  and  espe- 
cially noticed  a  lovely  shade  of  ruddy  gold 
hair. 

Traveling  in  Montenegro  is  delight- 
fully simple ;  there  are  no  trains  and  only 
one  carriage  road  in  and  out  of  Cettinje; 
you  either  go  by  carriage  or  you  take  a 
pack  pony  and  scramble  over  the  moun- 
tain tracks.  It  is  said  that  Prince  Nickola 
wishes  to  make  Nikshitz  his  capital,  as 
being  more  in  the  center  of  the  princi- 
pality; the  one  road  from  Cettinje  con- 
nects with  it  via  Podgoritza,  but  it  is 
doubtful  if  the  scheme  will  be  carried 
through,  as  Cettinje  is  considered  by  the 
representatives  of  the  Powers  to  be  the 
"jumping-off  place,"  and  certainly  Nik- 
shitz would  be  much  less  accessible. 

Delightful  as  were  the  days  at  Cettinje, 
the  beyond  was  ever  calling,  and  it 
seemed  a  pity  when  so  near  the  Sultan's 
domains  not  to  drop  over  the  border  into 
Albania,  the  most  northwesterly  vilayet 
of  the  Empire,  and  see  not  only  a  bit  of 
this  out-of-the-way  province,  but  the  Al- 
banians, who  are  the  wildest  people  left 
in  Europe,  in  their  own  country  and  in 
their  own  capital.  Our  friends  shook 
their  heads  dubiously  and  advised  us  not 
to  go.  "Why  is  there  trouble?"  "Where 
there  are  Albanians  there  is  always 
trouble.  The  ladies  had  best  stay  with 
us ;  they  can  travel  safely  all  over  Mon- 
tenegro, but  the  Albanians  are  a  bad  lot.'' 
However,  we  had  seen  enough  of  the 
edge  of  the  Eastern  question  to  know  that 
every  man's  hand  is  turned  against  his 
neighbor,  and  even  now  the  Montenegrin 
cannot  get  over  the  wars,  cruelties,  and 
reprisals  of  his  blood  enemy  of  hundreds 
of  years. 

We  decided  that  the  Albanian  was 
probably  not  so  black  as  he  was  painted 
and  left  Cettinje  early  one  morning  en 
route  for  his  capital  of  Scodra.  After 
leaving  the  town  the  road  rose  steadily, 
and  when  we  reached  the  top  of  the  pass 
we  caught  our  breaths  at  the  beauty  of 
the  view  spread  out  before  us — peak  after 


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<       JS 


1  -0 

2  6 

55     13 

il 


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SAINT    SAVINA,    A    GREEK    ORTHODOX     MONASTERY     IN    THE    "BOCCHE 


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I 


A   MONTENEGRIN  DANDY 


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peak  rose  majestically  above,  far  below 
lay  a  green  valley  with  its  tiny  village  and 
the  long,  lonely,  opal  lake  of  Scodra  deep 
set  in  its  barren  hills,  while  the  grim 
Albanian  mountains  showed  blue  and 
hazy  in  the  distance. 

THE:  LAKE  OF  SCODRA 

We  rattled  down  to  Riejka,  the  village 
on  the  lake,  so  named  from  Ivan  Beg 
Crnoievich  (riejka  means  a  stream),  who 
ruled  in  the  latter  half  of  the  fifteenth 
century  and  had  his  capital  in  this  vicin- 
ity. These  were  among  the  darkest  years 
for  the  Montenegrins,  and  Ivan  was 
forced  to  cede  the  rich  plains  of  the  Zeta 
to  the  Turks  and  was  driven  to  the  moun- 
tain fastnesses  and  there  founded  Cettinje 
in  1484.  He  built  a  castle  above  Riejka 
to  fortify  his  new  frontier  and  swore  to 
hold  the  Black  Mountain  at  any  price. 
A  wise  as  well  as  a  warlike  ruler,  he 
founded  a  monastery  and  sent  for  a  print- 
ing press  from  Venice,  but  twenty  years 
after  the  first  book  was  printed  in  Lon- 
don by  Caxton !  Popular  tradition  says 
that  he  but  sleeps,  and  will  one  day  awake 
to  lead  his  people  in  their  hour  of  need. 

But  more  pressing  than  past  history 
was  the  question  of  present  transport,  so 
we  hastened  to  make  inquiries  if  the  boat 
was  running  on  the  lake.  "No ;  it  was 
broken."  "What  shall  we  do?"  "If  we 
turn  back  or  wait  we  shall  miss  the 
Wednesday  market  in  Scodra  which  we 
have  come  so  far  to  see."  Then  being 
told  that  if  enough  passengers  turned  up 
to  make  it  worth  while  a  small  tug  would 
be  run  instead,  we  embarked  in  a  row- 
boat  to  reconnoiter.  A  small  pink  tug 
presented  itself,  and  also  fortunately  two 
Italian  gentlemen  and  a  number  of  peas- 
ants, so  the  list  being  complete  we  for- 
eigners managed  to  stow  ourselves  in 
front,  the  peasants  aft,  and  the  little  boat 
glided  out  on  the  pretty  tortuous  stream 
through  masses  of  lilies  and  water  reeds, 
gallantly  trying  to  bar  our  progress  into 
this  lovely  solitary  lake.  Great  herons 
and  spoonbills  and  other  water  fowl  took 
our  passing  through  their  favorite  haunts 
quite  philosophically,  too  indifferent  to 


even  flop  away.  We  twisted  and  turned 
for  some  time,  and  after  passing  a  forti- 
fied island  emerged  into  the  open  lake — 
Montenegro  towered  behind  and  the  so- 
called  accursed  mountains  of  Albania  rose 
in  unreal  cloudlike  masses  in  the  far  dis- 
tance. 

Stops  were  made  at  Virbazar  and  Pla- 
unitza  to  take  passengers  on  and  off ;  at 
the  former  place  we  persuaded  the  cap- 
tain to  take  us  ashore  with  him  to  pick 
up  the  mail,  for  which  he  cheerfully  an- 
nounced he  might  have  to  wait  at  least 
four  hours !  So,  with  the  captain  and 
mate,  we  scrambled  into  a  dugout  and 
were  rowed  by  a  sheep-nosed,  raucous- 
voiced  boy  up  another  little  creek  to  the 
charmingly  situated  town,  which  was 
quite  overcome  with  astonishment  at 
seeing  us,  Europeans,  especially  women, 
being  rare. 

We  sat  in  front  of  the  little  drink  shop 
under  the  shade  of  fine  old  plain  trees, 
with  our  tea  basket,  an  infinite  delight 
and  amusement  to  the  natives.  Captain 
and  mate  made  no  bones  about  s  drinking 
out  of  glasses  encrusted  with  grime, 
probably  being  used  to  Montenegrin  cus- 
toms, but  the  little  maid  who  served  us 
evidently  thought  we  were  accustomed  to 
better  things  and  politely  gave  the  glasses 
a  wipe  with  still  grimier  fingers ! 

The  town  affords  some  attractive 
views,  while  old  fortifications  on  the  hill 
looked  worth  exploring,  but  the  sun  beat 
down  mercilessly  and  we  succumbed  to 
the  fascinations  of  shopping,  assisted  by 
the  entire  population,  with  much  advice 
and  many  kindly  pats  on  the  back  when 
a  certain  article  was  tried  on  (in  the 
street,  as  the  shop  had  become  too  con- 
gested by  onlookers)  and  considered  be- 
coming. 

So  far  the  transactions  had  been  car- 
ried on  by  means  of  signs,  but  now  the 
crowd  made  way  for  a  handsome  ragged 
lad  with  an  open  face,  evidently  a  trav- 
eler, with  a  sturdy  staff,  and  all  his 
worldly  possessions  tied  up  in  a  handker- 
chief. He  knew  a  few  words  of  German 
which  he  had  learned  from  his  father,, 
who  "had  seen  the  world"  (he  had  beeru 


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in  the  Austrian  provinces)  ;  he,  too,  was 
going  abroad  to  seek  his  fortune,  where 
seemed  immaterial.  "He  feared  he  might 
find  many  bad  people  after  leaving  Mon- 
tenegro, as  he  had  been  told  that  there 
were  many  wicked  people  in  other  lands 
who  would  not  give  food  and  shelter  to 
wayfarers."  He  proudly  refused  money 
fand  even  cigarettes  for  his  interpreting, 
but  wistfully  asked  "were  the  Herrschaf- 
vten  going  his  way,  for  in  that  case  they 
Could  help  him  in  their  country  as  he  had 
helped  them  in  his."  The  diligence  came 
in  and  he  waived  us  a  sad  farewell  as  he 
drove  off.  Poor  boy ;  we  hoped  the  great 
world  would  reward  his  brave  trust. 

The  mail  came  at  last,  so  we  ree'm- 
barked  to  continue  our  trip.  The  lake 
opened,  the  same  stone  hills  continued 
to  enclose  it,  without  a  sign  of  habitation 
the  entire  length  of  forty-odd  miles.  The 
sun  set,  casting  glorious  flame-colored 
lights  on  mountain  and  water;  the  moon 
rose,  and  we  steamed  past  the  Sultan's 
one  decrepit  war  ship  flying  the  Crescent 
of  Islam  and  anchored  off  Scodra  or 
Scutari-Albanese,  as  it  is  called  on  our 
maps,  after  a  sixteen-hour  trip.  Great 
canoes  came  out  to  the  tug,  our  persons 
and  belongings  were  fought  over,  and,  at 
the  risk  of  being  dumped  in  the  lake,  we 
were  deposited  on  extremely  topply 
chairs  and  in  the  bottom  of  the  canoe  and 
taken  ashore.  All  was  darkness,  noise, 
and  confusion  in  the  custom-house.  We 
smuggled  the  kodak  and  a  couple  of 
books,  and  by  giving  a  liberal  backsheesh 
got  through  at  once  and  were  conducted 
by  our  friend  the  captain  to  the  one  inn 
where  it  is  possible  to  stay. 

THE  ALBANIANS 

Scodra  is  situated  at  the  end  of  the 
lake,  in  the  midst  of  a  wide  plain  that  late 
in  August  was  burned  dust  dry.  The 
town  has  a  population  of  some  40,000  in- 
habitants, and  is  considered  by  the  Al- 
banian the  finest  city  in  the  world.  It  is 
dirty,  dingy,  thoroughly  Eastern,  and 
possesses  a  fascination  all  its  own,  for 
here  we  are  in  a  land  and  among  a  people 
whose  development  was  arrested  in  the 
middle  ages  and  who  have  not  pro- 


gressed in  ideas,  customs,  or  morals  from 
that  time.  Here  there  is  no  trace  of  the 
West  or  modern  civilization  such  as  one 
comes  upon  in  striking  contrast  to  Old 
World  ways  in  the  other  Balkan  states. 
The  houses  are  concealed  behind  lo-foot 
walls,  with  overhanging  eaves  of  brown 
tiles  and  picturesque  blue  or  green  lat- 
ticed windows ;  few  houses  but  have  a 
garden,  the  vines  and  trees  peeping  grace- 
fully over  the  walls.  A  few  mosques 
and  minarets  appear  in  the  distance. 

The  Albanians  are  recognized  to  be 
the  descendants  of  the  ancient  inhabitants 
of  the  Peninsula,  who  were  here  before 
the  Greeks  or  Romans,  and  are  not  allied 
to  the  other  Balkan  peoples ;  civilization 
and  empires  have  swept  over  them,  and 
they  have  gone  on  in  their  own  savage  way, 
accepting  a  nominal  ruler,  but  a  nominal 
only.  They  speak  a  language  that  is  not 
written.  Their  code  of  life  and  morals  is 
thoroughly  medieval,  and  their  proud 
boast  is  that  they  have  never  betrayed  a 
friend  or  spared  an  enemy.  Fighting  is 
the  breath  of  their  nostrils,  and  for  this 
reason  they  have  been  extremely  useful 
to  the  Sultan,  and  by  fighting  in  his 
armies  have  purchased  immunity  from 
interference  and  taxation  at  home.  If 
you  ask  about  the  openly  smuggled  to- 
bacco in  Scodra  Bazar  you  will  be  told, 
"We  Albanians  do  not  chose  to  pay 
taxes  ;  why  should  we  ?" 

Not  only  a  brave  but  an  able  man,  the 
Albanian  is  quick  to  learn  when  given  the 
opportunity,  and  is  keen  and  successful 
in  business  when  able  to  escape  the  blight 
of  the  Turk,  which  is  keeping  him  an 
untutored  savage. 

The  Bazar  is  the  greatest  attraction  in 
Scodra.  It  lies  down  by  the  river,  a 
labyrinth  of  narrow,  ill-paved  lanes  with 
gutters  down  the  middle,  where  the  pack 
animals  walk,  the  spaces  between  the  tiny 
booths  being  often  not  more  than  6  feet 
wide.  Fascinating  at  all  times,  the  scene 
on  market  days  is  indescribable — a  mass 
of  glaring  barbaric  color,  the  alleys 
throbbing  with  a  life  that  our  ancestors, 
too,  must  have  known  in  the  glittering, 
squalid  middle  a^es. 

Here  the  streets  are  each  o-iven  over  to 


WHERE  EAST  MEETS  WEST 


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WHERE  EAST  MEETS  WEST 


33' 


a  separate  occupation,  one  to  the  bakers, 
one  to  the  butchers,  a  third  to  the  gun- 
smiths, a  popular  booth,  especially  with 
the  mountain  men.  Petticoat  lane  displays 
the  discarded  finery  of  the  harem,  some- 
times, too,  fine  embroideries  and  marvel- 
ously  tinted  brocades.  The  harness  shops 
are  gay  with  all  sorts  of  colored  leather 
trappings  and  bead  headstalls  with  amu- 
lets to  keep  the  evil  eye  from  the  pack 
ponies.  Crude  red  and  green  cradles  and 
gaudily  painted  chests  for  the  ladies,  in 
which  to  keep  their  finery,  are  sold  at  the 
carpenter's.  The  tinsmiths  ply  a  busy 
trade  in  curiously  wrought  metal  belts, 
while  busier  and  more  popular  than  all  is 
the  inevitable  coffee  booth. 

MEDIEVAL    COSTUMES    AT    SCODRA 

And  the  motley  crowd  who  jostle  each 
other  in  and  out  of  the  narrow  ways !  A 
Mohammedan  Beg  swaggers  by  in  the 
cumberous  fustinella,  the  plaited  white 
shirt  worn  by  the  Greeks,  but  seen  in 
its  greatest  glory  on  the  Albanians. 
Here  a  group  of  wild  men  and  women 
from  the  mountains,  the  former  stalking 
stealthily  in  front,  their  ever-searching 
eyes  on  the  lookout  for  the  enemy  who 
may  be  in  hiding,  the  latter  carrying 
heavy  loads  on  their  shoulders,  possiblv 
for  a  walk  of  ten  hours ! 

Their  costume  is  one  of  the  most 
curious  in  existence.  That  of  the  men 
consists  of  white  homespun,  medieval- 
looking  leg  gear,  heavily  striped  and 
braided  in  black ;  an  open  vest,  the  front 
braided  and  cut  in  zigzags,  and  over  this 
a  black  sleeveless  wool  jacket  with  a 
square  fringed  collar,  the  whole  topped 
by  a  white  fez.  This  black  jacket  is  worn 
for  George  Kastoriot  or  Skenderbeg,  one 
of  the  few  great  men  the  country  has  pro- 
duced. He  gathered  the  tribes  together 
and  held  all  the  land  against  the  Turks 
till  he  was  killed,  in  1467,  and  his  people 
still  cherish  his  memory  so  dearly  that 
they  wear  mourning  for  him.  The  women 
wear  short,  very  stiff  skirts  of  the  same 
homespun,  white  and  black  alternating  in 
the  stripes,  waistcoat  and  long  white 
coats  of  the  same  material  ornamented 
in  red  and  blue. 


But  older  still  is  the  dress  of  the  town 
men  and  boys  of  the  poorer  classes — a 
white  tunic  and  drawers  tied  about  the 
waist  with  a  red  sash  and  topped  with  a 
fez.  This  without  the  fez  is  the  costume 
of  the  barbarians  on  the  Greek  and 
Roman  vases.  If  this  is  the  oldest,  the 
palm  for  the  ugliest  is  easily  borne  off  by 
the  well-to-do  Christian  women.  The 
wearer  is  hardly  able  to  get  along  at  all 
in  her  high-heeled  shoes  and  with  the 
enormous  weight  of  the  material  used  in 
her  trousers,  which  she  has  to  hold  up 
with  both  hands,  and  then  is  only  able  to 
waddle.  These  women  go  veiled  in  the 
streets  and  swathe  themselves  in  a  shape- 
less scarlet  coat  with  a  square  collar 
pinned  up  to  the  head,  the  whole  braided 
in  black.  Their  husbands  and  sons  affect 
jaunty  jackets  of  dark  red  so  heavily  em- 
broidered as  to  appear  black,  but  then 
everybody  of  importance  is  brave  with 
embroidery  in  Scodra  and  wears  garments 
that  are  marvels  of  the  art  of  needle- 
work, with  the  comforting  conviction 
that  the  fashions  will  never  change  and 
that  clothes  will  last  a  lifetime  and  can 
then  be  passed  on  to  the  servants  and  de- 
pendents of  the  family. 

At  night  Scodra  was  uncanny ;  it  is  un- 
safe even  for  the  natives  to  venture  out 
after  dark.  Few  houses  showed  a  light, 
and  all  was  silent  and  mysterious.  The 
last  night  of  our  stay  we  were  aroused 
towards  dawn  by  hearing  a  stray  shot  or 
two,  which  soon  grew  into  a  perfect 
fusillade,  a  bell  tolled,  and  as  the  sun 
rose  the  Sultan's  unkempt  troops  turned 
out,  each  munching  his  ration  of  dry 
bread  as  he  rode  (all  hunched  up  on  the 
small  pony)  after  the  possible  malefac- 
tors. We  thought  the  massacre  of  which 
the  town  lives  in  ever  present  dread  had 
really  begun,  and  we  were  greatly  re- 
lieved to  learn  that  the  commotion  was 
only  caused  by  robbers  in  the  ward. 

We  tore  ourselves  regretfully  from  bar- 
baric Scodra,  so  brilliant  by  day.  so  de- 
pressing by  night,  for  much  still  lay 
before  us,  so  back  across  the  lake  we 
went,  and  were  welcomed  by  our  friends- 
in  Cettinje  as  if  from  out  of  the  lion's 
den.  With  many  promises  to  return 


332 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


another  year  we  retraced  our  steps  to 
Ragusa,  there  to  repair  the  ravages 
travel  had  made  on  ourselves  and  our 
linen,  and  enjoy  the  luxuries  of  civiliza- 
tion before  starting  again  for  the  interior. 

IN    HERZEGOVINA 

After  Albania,  a  Turkish  province  ad- 
ministered, or  rather  not  administered, 
by  the  Turk,  we  were  forcibly  struck 
with  the  prosperous  appearance  of  the 
people  of  Herzegovina  and  Bosnia,  Turk- 
ish possessions  until  1878,  when  they 
were,  after  the  revolt,  handed  over  to 
Austria  to  be  governed.  The  conditions 
were  said  to  be  as  bad  then  as  they  are 
now,  in  parts  of  the  Sultan's  dominions, 
where  there  is  no  safety  for  life  or  prop- 
erty. Today  Austria  administers  the 
country  (under  the  nominal  control  of 
the  Porte)  wisely  and  paternally,  regard- 
ing the  religious  and  other  customs  of  the 
people,  with  the  result  that  the  Moslems 
and  Christians  live  side  by  side  in  the 
greatest  peace  and  amity. 

We  took  the  railroad,  which  has  been 
recently  constructed,  from  Ragusa  to 
Mostar.  Soon  the  tropical  vegetation  of 
the  coast  had  been  left  behind,  the  train 
crawling  steadily  up  through  grand 
mountain  scenery.  We  made  several 
stops,  when  wild  women  from  the  hills  of 
Herzegovina,  in  white  linen  trousers  and 
tunics,  their  legs  incased  in  top  boots, 
peered  shyly  at  us,  afraid  to  meet  our 
eyes,  much  less  face  the  camera.  We 
passed  several  train-loads  of  peasants 
traveling  fourth  class  in  vans  marked 
"12  horses  or  30  people,"  and  drew  up  at 
the  capital  of  Herzegovina,  Mostar. 

The  town  is  thoroughly  Oriental,  beau- 
tifully situated  on  both  sides  of  the  rap- 
idly flowing  Narenta,  with  many  minarets 
picturesquely  breaking  the  sky  line.  The 
two  quarters  of  the  city  are  connected 
bv  a  superb  old  stone  bridge,  with  a  span 
of  a  hundred  feet  and  over  60  feet  above 
the  stream.  Tradition  attributes  it  to  the 
Romans  (though  it  was  probably  built  by 
one  of  the  early  Sultans),  and  also  says 
that  great  difficulty  was  found  in  building 
the  foundations,  until  some  one  had  the 


happy  inspiration  of  burying  two  lovers 
beneath  the  piers,  after  which  all  went 
well. 

Leaving  Mostar,  we  entered  the  great 
defile  of  the  Narenta,  a  wild  and  rocky 
gorge,  had  a  glimpse  of  the  Prenj  Moun- 
tains towering  to  the  right,  reached  the 
top  of  the  Ivan  Plana,  the  watershed 
between  the  Black  Sea  and  the  Adriatic, 
passed  through  a  tunnel,  and  emerged 
into  Bosnia  proper.  As  we  descended 
toward  Sarajevo  the  country  began  to 
assume  an  entirely  different  aspect  to 
anything  else  we  had  seen  in  the  Penin- 
sula; the  wild  gorges  and  rocky  peaks 
gave  place  to  fertile  river  beds  and  beau- 
tifully wooded  hills,  the  little  villages 
being  very  quaint  and  distinctive.  The 
houses  have  extremely  steep-pitched, 
shingled  roofs  and  are  built,  even  the 
modern  ones,  without  chimneys,  the 
smoke  escaping  as  best  it  can. 

Sarajevo,  "the  Damascus  of  the 
North,"  so  called  from  the  number  and 
importance  of  its  mosques,  is  a  most 
curious  mixture  of  a  European  and  an 
Oriental  city.  It  lies  in  the  wide  valley, 
on  both  sides  of  the  Miljacka.  The 
Austrian  quarters  are  situated  along  the 
river  bank,  while  the  native  houses  strag- 
gle picturesquely  up  the  sides  of  the  in- 
closing hills,  and  the  population  is  as 
mixed  as  the  architecture.  As  the  largest 
city  in  the  province,  it  is  an  important 
military  post ;  the  streets  are  full  of  smart 
officers  and  their  wives,  as  well  as  the 
officials  of  the  Austrian  government, 
while  the  native  population  is  varied  and 
includes  not  only  the  Greek  and  Catholic 
Christians,  the  Moslem  Bosnians,  some 
gipsies,  a  few  Turks,  and  people  from  the 
neighboring  states,  but  quite  a  colony  of 
the  Jews  who  are  the  direct  descendants 
of  those  who,  strangely  enough,  found 
refuge  in  Bosnia  at  the  time  of  the  Span- 
ish Inquisition,  and  who  still  speak 
Spanish  and  are  called  Spaniards.  Fri- 
day, Saturday,  and  Sunday  are  respect- 
ively the  Moslem,  Jewish,  and  Christian 
Sabbaths,  when  the  town  is  less  lively, 
but  on  other  days  there  is  always  some- 
thing doing,  especially  in  the  Bazar, 


WHERE  EAST  MEETS  WEST 


333 


where  the  different  types 
and  costumes  are  seen  to  the 
best  advantage.  Unfortu- 
nately this  trading  center  is 
now  almost  entirely  given 
up  to  the  sale  of  cheap  Aus- 
trian manufactured  goods ; 
this  is  particularly  disap- 
pointing, as  the  Bosnian  is  a 
born  craftsman,  combining 
great  taste  in  color  and  de- 
sign with  dexterity  in  hand- 
ling his  material.  The  gov- 
ernment has  opened  schools 
for  both  sexes  for  training 
in  the  manufacture  of  text- 
iles, rugs,  inlay  and  metaL 
work,  but  to  us,  watching 
the  streets  in  the  Bazar, 
where  the  cross-legged,  tur- 
baned  men  were  at  work  on 
all  sorts  of  leather,  was  by 
far  more  fascinating.  They 
fashion  this  material  of 
every  conceivable  shade  into 
bags,  belts,  harness,  and 
shoes  of  every  size  and  for 
every  national  costume, 
from  the  high,  loose,  lemon- 
tinted  boot  the  Turkish 
women  wear  in  the  street  to 
the  clumsy,  elaborate  shoe 
for  the  countryman,  with 
no  heels  and  a  turned-up, 
pointed  toe,  most  craftily 
worked  and  ornamented  in 
another  colored  leather. 

We  became  quite  chummy 
with  a  fair-haired,  blue-eyed 
young  Bosnian  whom  we 
met  in  the  Bazar,  and  who 
called  himself  a  "Turk,"  as 
do  so  many  of  the  Mos- 
lems. To  our  surprise  he  offered  to 
show  us  the  interior  of  the  Husef  Beg 
Mosque,  and  he  seemed  much  pleased 
when  we  admired  its  lofty  proportions. 
He  also  took  us  to  a  coffee-house  or 
"kavanna,"  patronized  entirely  by  na- 
tives— really  a  garden  inclosed  with  a 
lattice  fence,  the  humbler  guests  sitting 
on  wooden  benches  under  the  trees,  the 


COUNTRY   WOMAN,   HERZEGOVINA    (SEE   PAGE   332) 


more  exalted   in  pretty,   thatched- roof eJ 

summer-houses  on  each  side.  The  coffee 
booth  was  aglow  with  shining  brass 
utensils  and  bright  charcoal  fire.  Twink- 
ling lights  brought  out  the  dark,  rich 
dress  of  the  well-to-do  town  Moslems,  in 
fez,  slippers,  black  silk  trousers,  and 
jaunty  little  jackets  embroidered  in  gold, 
who  were  sipping  the  delicious  coffee, 


334          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


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335 


SARAJEVO   PACK    PONIES    EN    ROUTE    TO  -MARKET 


smoking  cigarettes,  and  listening  with 
great  contentment  to  wild  gipsy  music  or 
monotonous  ballads  of  long  dead  kings. 

Coffee  and  cigarettes,  everywhere  good 
and  cheap,  seem  to  be  the  chief  articles 
of  subsistence  of  the  Bosnians,  who  con- 
sume an  incredible  amount  of  both  (we 
were  told  some  of  the  men  limited  them- 
selves to  100  each  per  day),  and  though 
we  have  watched  them  at  all  hours  at 
work  in  their  little  open-fronted  shops, 
we  rarely  saw  them  eat  any  solid  food ! 

A    FEW   DAYS    IN    BOSNIA 

But  to  see  the  country  as  it  was  in  the 
old,  unregenerate  days  before  the  Aus- 


trian occupation,  we  went  to  Jayce.  This 
little  town  now  lies  off  the  beaten  track, 
but  was  once  the  center  of  the  important 
Ikinyat  of  Jayce,  and  is  today  the  pret- 
tiest place  imaginable,  with  its  quaint 
shingled  or  stucco  painted  houses, 
mosques,  and  fountains.  The  surround- 
ing country  is  lovely,  the  falls,  just  above 
the  town,  where  the  Pliva,  flowing  from 
the  lake  of  Jesero,  precipitates  itself  into 
the  Yrbas  below  in  a  leap  of  a  hundred 
feet,  being  really  remarkable.  We  drove 
one  morning  to  Jesero,  not  far  away,  on 
the  lake  of  the  same  name,  between 
deeply  wooded  hills,  which  afford  good 
cover  to  all  sorts  of  game,  while  on  the 


336          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


HERZEGOVINIAN  WOMEN  IN  THE  STREETS  OF  SAINT  SAVINA 


WHERE  EAST  MEETS  WEST 


337 


MOSLEM    WOMAN,    MOSTAR,    HERZEGOVINA 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


lake  the  wild  ducks  were  so  tame  that 
they  swam  almost  within  reach.  The 
village,  set  in  its  mass  of  verdure,  sug- 
gested a  scene  in  Surrey,  but  the  mina- 
rets, the  veiled  women,  and  the  little  girls, 
with  their  hair  and  hands  dyed  with  the 
all-popular  henna,  reminded  us  that  we 
were  still  in  the  East. 

Market  day  brought  into  the  open 
market  place  country  people  from  all  the 
surrounding  farms  and  hills.  Every  one 
had  something  to  sell  and  to  buy.  The 
pottery  man's  wares,  designed  for  house- 
hold utensils,  were  popular  with  the 
housewives  and  gave  a  lovely  splash  of 
green  and  gold  to  that  part  of  the  square. 
All  sorts  of  grain  and  seeds  were  for  sale 
in  loosely  woven  baskets,  while  the  sheep 
and  goats  had  an  entire  plateau  to  them- 
selves. Several  itinerant  traders  were 
doing  a  lively  business  in  bright  glass 
beads  among  the  younger  women,  who 
make  them  into  belts  and  other  dress 
trimmings,  while  strung  on  wire  they 
were  bought  in  the  form  of  bracelets  and 
necklaces. 

The  peasants  were  quite  as  much  inter- 
ested in  us  as  we  were  in  their  costumes, 
and  much  friendliness  prevailed,  smiles 
and  pats  on  the  shoulder  taking  the  place 
of  words.  Screwing  up  our  courage,  we 
tackled  a  dark  young  beauty,  smoking 
a  cigarette  with  a  charmingly  nonchalant 
air,  and  asked  her  if  she  would  be  willing 
to  sell  her  belt  and  apron.  She  was  at 
first  too  astonished  and  amused  to  answer, 
but  finally  coyly  consented.  A  friend 
came  up  to  see  what  was  happening, 
this  one  a  handsome  blonde,  her  husband 
in  tow.  She  was  also  willing  to  sell  any 
part  of  her  costume,  and  promptly  began 
such  an  alarming  unfastening  that  we 
hastily  suggested  the  garments  could  be 
delivered  later. 


Soon  the  fame  of  the  crazy  "Herr- 
schaften,"  who  were  willing  to  pay  good 
money  for  old  clothes,  spread  through 
the  country-side,  and  before  long  the 
space  outside  the  inn  was  crowded  with 
what  the  distracted  proprietor  called  "ein 
Jahrmarkt."  Crowds  of  peasants  were 
displaying  their  wares  and  good  na- 
turedly  trying  to  oust  each  other,  while 
one  woman,  we  were  sure,  was  offering 
her  baby  as  an  extra  inducement  to  the 
collector,  as  we  called  the  gentleman  of 
our  party.  Aside  from  the  amusement, 
it  was  rather  pathetic  to  see  how  much  a 
little  ready  money  meant  for  these  hard- 
working, honest  souls,  who  would  tramp 
hours  with  bits  of  their  finery,  embroid- 
ered garments,  and  fine  old  brass  orna- 
ments to  sell  them  to  us  for  a  few 
kronen. 

On  a  showery  morning  we  drove  off 
from  Jayce,  our  plunder  following  in  a 
second  carriage ;  our  drivers,  two  gay 
young  Moslems,  who  entertained  us 
vastly  with  their  wild  bursts  of  song,  by 
charring  every  one  on  the  road,  and  by 
flirting  outrageously  with  all  the  peasant 
women  we  met.  The  way  lay  through 
magnificent  scenery,  past  scattered  settle- 
ments and  lonely  haus,  where  we  always 
halted  for  the  inevitable  coffee,  the 
charm  of  the  East  lying  over  all  until  we 
drove  into  the  district  town  of  Banja- 
luka.  Here,  after  a  night  spent  in  lodg- 
ings off  the  stable  yard,  the  inn  being 
full,  we  started  by  rail  back  to  common- 
place Europe.  In  a  few  hours  we  were 
out  o'f  Bosnia.  The  East,  its  scenery, 
mystery,  and  costumes  were  left  behind; 
the  crown  lands  of  Hungary  through 
which  we  passed  seemed  worthless  in 
comparison  and  the  every-day  life  to 
which  we  were  returning  remarkably 
tame. 


WHERE  EAST  MEETS  WEST 


339 


340 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


WHERE  EAST  MEETS  WEST 


34' 


• 


342  THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


JAYCE,  BOSNIA:  A  GREEK  ORTHODOX  BEAUTY 


WHERE  EAST  MEETS  WEST 


343 


<  • 


JAYCE,    BOSNIA,    TURKISH    FOUNTAIN 


34-4          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


AN   AMERICAN    FABLE 


BY    GlFFORD    PlNCHOT 
CHIEF  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  FOREST  SERVICE 


THE  conservation  of  our  natural 
resources    is    a    subject    which 
has  had  little  attention  in  the 
past;  but  it  is  so  simple,  so  elementary, 
that   it  might   almost   be  told   in   words 
like  those  of  the  old  fairy  tales  that  we 
all  loved  when  we  were  boys  and  girls. 
It  might  run  in  this  way: 

Once  upon  a  time  there  was  a  young 
man  who  had  been  given  a  great  prop- 
erty in  a  distant  region,  and  left  home  to 
take  possession  of  it.  When  he  reached 
his  property  he  first  made  himself  ac- 
quainted with  it.  As  he  explored  it  and 
studied  its  value  he  began  to  think  how 
he  would  make  his  living  out  of  it.  The 
problem  was  not  a  hard  one. 

He  found  that  his  property  was  won- 
derfully rich,  and  supplied  his  needs  at 
the  cost  of  far  less  exertion  than  he 
would  have  had  to  make  at  home — a  fair 
land,  well  watered,  well  timbered,  and 
abounding  in  game  and  fruits,  with 
broad  meadows  for  cattle  and  horses  and 
sheep,  and  with  no  small  store  of  rare 
and  curious  minerals,  and  an  outcrop  of 
excellent  coal.  Life  was  easy,  and  he 
lived  lavishly  and  joyously  at  first,  after 
the  initial  hard  work  of  moving  in  and 
building  his  house  and  raising  his  first 
crops  was  over.  He  had  far  more  land 
than  he  could  use,  far  more  game;  and 
what  he  lacked  he  was  able  to  buy  from 
home  with  furs,  with  timber,  with  min- 
erals, and  with  the  surplus  of  his  crops. 

By  and  by  he  saw  and  liked  a  girl  and 
finally  married  her.  Together  they  pros- 
pered on  their  property,  which  seemed 
too  rich  to  make  it  necessary  for  them  to 
trouble  about  the  future.  Game  was 
still  plentiful,  though  less  so  than  at  first ; 
the  timber,  though  growing  less,  was 
still  abundant  enough  to  last  longer  than 
they  could  hope  to  live ;  by  breaking  new 
land  they  could  always  count  on  mar- 


velous crops ;  the  coal  was  a  little  harder 
to  get  at,  but  still  close  to  the  surface, 
and  besides  the  man  only  dug  out  the 
easiest,  and  when  the  earth  began  to 
cave  in  started  again  at  a  new  place. 
His  stock,  pastured  on  the  meadows,  had 
trampled  out  some  grass,  but  there  was 
still  no  lack.  That  some  day  strangers 
would  possess  their  property  when  they 
had  done  with  it,  and  find  it  somewhat 
run  down,  did  not  trouble  these  two 
good  people  at  all. 

But  children  had  come  to  them  with 
the  years,  and  by  and  by  these  children 
began  to  grow  up.  Then  the  point  of 
view  of  the  man  and  his  wife  changed. 
They  wanted  to  see  their  sons  and 
daughters  provided  for  and  settled  on 
their  home  property,  and  they  began  to 
see  that  what  was  enough  and  to  spare 
for  them  would  not  support  all  their  chil- 
dren in  the  same  comfort  unless  they 
themselves  used  it  with  better  foresight. 
Through  thinking  of  their  children  they 
were  led  to  live  more  in  the  future. 

They  looked  forward  and  said  to 
themselves,  "Not  only  must  we  meet  our 
own  needs  from  this  property,  but  we 
must  see  to  it  that  our  children  come  in 
for  their  fair  share  of  it,  so  that  after  a 
while  the  blessedness  we  have  had  here 
may  be  carried  on  to  them."  So  the 
family  established  itself.  The  man  be- 
came respected  and  his  children  grew  up 
around  him ;  and  when  in  the  fulness  of 
time  he  passed  away  and  his  children 
took  the  place  in  which  he  had  stood,  be- 
cause of  his  foresight  and  care,  they  en- 
joyed the  same  kind  of  prosperity  he  had 
enjoyed. 

It  is  a  perfectly  simple  story ;  we  all  of 
us  can  name  scores  of  men  who  have 
done  this  same  thing.  The  men  and  the 
women  who  do  it  are  not  famous,  are 
not  regarded  as  remarkable  in  any  way; 


*  An  address  to  the  National  Geographic  Society,  January  31,  1908. 


346 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


they  are  simply  good,  every-day,  average 
citizens,  who  are  carrying  out  the  duties 
of  the  average  citizen. 

THE   STORY  OF  OUR   NATION 

Now  once  upon  a  time  there  was  a 
young  nation  which  left  its  home  and 
moved  on  to  a  new  continent.  As  soon 
as  the  people  who  formed  the  first  settle- 
ments began  to  examine  the  value  and 
condition  of  this  new  continent,  they 
found  it  marvelously  rich  in  every  pos- 
sible resource.  The  forests  were  so  vast 
that  they  were  not  a  blessing  in  the  early 
days,  but  a  hindrance.  The  soil  was  so 
rich  and  there  was  so  much  of  it  that 
they  were  able  at  first  only  to  scratch  the 
edges  of  their  great  property.  It  was 
quite  plain  to  these  people  in  the  early 
times  that  however  much  they  might 
cover,  however  much  they  might  waste, 
there  was  going  to  be  plenty  left.  They 
found  wonderfully  rich  deposits  of  ore, 
great  oil  fields,  and  vast  stretches  of  the 
richest  bituminous  and  anthracite  coal 
lands ;  noble  rivers  making  fertile  broad 
expanses  of  meadow,  rich  alluvial  prai- 
ries, great  plains  covered  with  countless 
herds  of  buffalo  and  antelope,  mountains 
in  the  west  filled  with  minerals,  and  on 
both  coasts  opportunities  richer  than 
any  nation  had  ever  found  elsewhere 
before. 

They  entered  into  this  vast  possession 
and  began  to  use  it.  They  did  not  need 
to  think  much  about  how  they  used  their 
coal,  or  oil,  or  timber,  or  water — it  would 
last — and  they  began  to  encroach  on  the 
supply  with  freedom  and  in  confidence 
that  there  would  always  be  plenty.  The 
only  word  with  which  they  described 
what  they  had,  when  they  talked  about 
it,  was  the  word  inexhaustible. 

Let  us  see  for  a  moment  what  the 
course  of  development  of  this  young  na- 
tion was.  First  of  all  they  needed  men 
and  women  to  settle  on  the  land  and 
bring  up  children  and  have  a  stake  in 
the  country.  That  was  absolutely  neces- 
sary before  there  could  develop  the  great 
nation  which  some  of  them  saw  ahead. 
As  the  population  spread,  there  arose  a 


need  that  great  systems  of  transporta- 
tion should  be  built  to  knit  the  country 
together  and  provide  for  the  interchange 
of  its  products.  These  railroads  called 
for  iron,  coal,  and  timber  in  great  quan- 
tities. Then  began  an  unprecedented 
demand  upon  the  forests.  Not  only 
could  they  not  build  those  transconti- 
nental railroad  lines  without  millions 
upon  millions  of  railroad  ties  cut  from 
the  forests  of  the  country,  but  they  could 
not  mine  the  iron  and  coal  except  as  the 
forests  gave  them  the  means  of  timber- 
ing their  mines,  transporting  the  ore,  and 
disposing  of  the  finished  product.  The 
whole  civilization  which  they  built  up 
was  conditioned  on  iron,  coal,  and 
timber. 

As  they  developed  their  continent, 
richer  than  any  other,  from  the  east  coast 
to  the  west,  new  resources  became  re- 
vealed to  them,  new  interests  took  pos- 
session of  them,  and  they  used  the  old 
resources  in  new  ways.  In  the  East, 
the  rivers  meant  to  them  only  means  of 
transportation ;  in  the  West  they  began 
to  see  that  the  rivers  meant  first  of  all 
crops;  that  they  must  put  the  rivers  on 
the  land  before  they  could  grow  wheat, 
and  alfalfa,  and  fruits,  and  all  the  things 
that  make  the  West  rich.  They  found 
that  to  feed  the  vast  population  which 
had  grown  up  in  the  eastern  country 
they  must  have  the  vast  ranges  of  the 
West  to  grow  meat;  that  the  resources 
which  produced  the  wheat,  and  the 
meat,  and  the  cotton,  and  the  iron,  and 
coal,  and  timber,  all  together  made  the 
working  capital  of  a  great  nation,  and 
that  the  nation  could  not  grow  unless  it 
had  all  of  these  things.  In  taking  pos- 
session of  them,  our  nation  used  them 
with  greater  effectiveness,  greater  en- 
ergy and  enterprise,  than  any  other  na- 
tion had  ever  shown  before.  Nothing- 
like  our  growth,  nothing  like  our  wealth, 
nothing  like  the  average  happiness  of 
our  people,  can  be  found  elsewhere;  and 
the  fundamental  reason  for  this  is,  on> 
the  one  side,  the  vast  natural  resources 
which  we  had  at  hand,  and,  on  the  other 
side,  the  character  and  ability  and  power 
of  our  people. 


AN  AMERICAN  FABLE 


347 


Now  what  have  we  done  with  these 
resources  which  have  made  us  great,  and 
what  is  the  present  condition  in  which 
this  marvelously  vigorous  nation  finds 
itself?  The  keynote  of  our  times  is  "de- 
velopment." Every  man,  from  New 
York  to  San  Francisco,  wants  the  devel- 
opment of  the  natural  resources,  the  ad- 
vantages, the  opportunities  which  sur- 
round him,  his  neighbors,  and  his 
friends.  Any  one  who  questions  the 
wisdom  of  any  of  the  methods  we  are 
using  in  bringing  that  development  to 
pass,  because  he  believes  we  are  making 
mistakes  that  will  be  expensive  later,  is 
in  danger  of  being  considered  an  enemy 
to  prosperity.  He  is  in  danger  of  hav- 
ing it  thought  of  him  that  he  does  not 
take  pride  in  our  great  achievements, 
that  he  is  not  a  very  good  American. 
But  in  reality  it  is  no  sign  that  a  man 
lacks  pride  in  the  United  States  and  the 
wonderful  things  our  people  have  done 
in  developing  this  great  country  because 
he  wants  to  see  that  development  go  on 
indefinitely.  On  the  contrary,  real  pa- 
triotism and  pride  in  our  country  make 
it  the  first  of  all  duties  to  see  that  our 
nation  shall  continue  to  prosper.  In 
sober  truth,  we  have  brought  ourselves 
into  a  present  condition  in  which  a  very 
serious  diminution  of  some  of  our  re- 
sources is  upon  us. 

WHAT    A    TIMBER    FAMINE    WOULD    MEAN 

A  third  of  this  country  was  originally 
covered  with  what  were,  all  in  all,  the 
most  magnificent  forests  of  the  globe — 
a  million  square  miles  of  timber  land.  In 
the  short  time,  as  time  counts  in  the  life 
of  nations,  that  we  have  been  here,  we 
have  all  but  reached  the  end  of  them. 
We  thought  it  unimportant  until  lately 
that  we  have  been  destroying  by  fire  as 
much  timber  as  we  have  used.  But  we 
have  now  reached  the  point  where  the 
growth  of  our  forests  is  but  one-third  of 
the  annual  cut,  while  we  have  in  store 
timber  enough  for  only  twenty  years  at 
our  present  rate  of  use.  This  wonder- 
ful development,  which  would  have  been 
impossible  without  the  cutting  of  the  for- 


ests, has  brought  us  where  we  really  face 
their  absolute  exhaustion  within  the 
present  generation.  And  we  use  five  or 
six  times  more  timber  per  capita  than  the 
European  nations.  A  timber  famine 
will  touch  every  man,  woman,  and  child 
in  all  the  land ;  it  will  affect  the  daily  life 
of  every  one  of  us ;  and  yet  without  con- 
sideration, without  forecast,  and  without 
foresight,  we  have  placed  ourselves,  not 
deliberately,  but  thoughtlessly,  in  a  posi- 
tion where  a  timber  famine  is  one  of  the 
inevitable  events  of  our  near  future. 

Canada  cannot  supply  us,  for  she  will 
need  her  timber  herself.  Siberia  cannot 
supply  us,  for  the  timber  is  too  far  from 
water  transportation.  South  America 
cannot  supply  us,  because  the  timbers  of 
that  vast  continent  are  of  a  different 
character  from  those  we  use,  and  ill- 
adapted  to  our  needs.  We  must  suffer 
because  we  have  carelessly  wasted  this 
great  condition  of  success.  It  is  impos- 
sible to  repair  the  damage  in  time  to  es- 
cape suffering. 

But  forests  only  begin  the  story  of  our 
impaired  capital.  Our  anthracite  coals  are 
said  to  be  in  danger  of  exhaustion  in  fifty 
years,  and  our  bituminous  coals  early 
in  the  next  century ;  some  of  our  older 
oil  fields  are  already  exhausted ;  the  nat- 
ural gas  has  been  wasted — burning  night 
and  day  in  many  towns  of  this  country 
until  the  supply  has  failed.  Our  iron 
deposits  grow  less  each  year.  Our 
ranges  in  the  West,  from  which  we  first 
drove  the  buffalo  to  cover  them  again 
with  cattle  and  sheep,  are  capable  of  sup- 
porting but  about  one-half  what  they 
could  under  intelligent  management ; 
and  the  price  of  beef  is  raised.  Nearly 
every  one  of  our  wonderful  resources  we 
have  used  without  reasonable  foresight 
and  reasonable  care,  and  as  each  be- 
comes exhausted  a  heavier  burden  of 
hardship  will  be  laid  upon  us  as  a  people. 

Now  what  is  our  remedy?  The  rem- 
edy is  the  perfectly  simple  one  of  com- 
mon sense  applied  to  national  affairs  as 
common  sense  is  applied  to  personal  af- 
fairs. This  is  no  abstruse  or  difficult 
question.  We  have  hitherto  as  a  nation 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


taken  the  same  course  as  did  at  first  the 
young  man  who  came  into  possession  of 
his  new  property.  It  is  time  now  for  a 
change. 

It  is  true  that  some  natural  resources 
renew  themselves,  while  others  do  not. 
Our  mineral  resources  once  gone  are 
gone  forever.  It  may  appear,  therefore, 
at  first  thought  that  conservation  does 
not  apply  to  them,  since  they  can  be  used 
only  once ;  but  this  is  far  from  being  the 
fact.  Methods  of  coal  mining,  for  in- 
stance, have  been  permitted  in  this  coun- 
try which  take  out  on  the  average  but 
half  of  the  coal,  and  then  in  a  short  time 
the  roof  sinks  in  on  the  other  half,  which 
thereafter  can  never  be  mined.  Oil  and 
natural  gas  also  have  been  and  are  being 
•exploited  with  great  waste,  and  as 
though  there  never  could  be  an  end  to 
them.  The  forests  we  can  replace  at 
rgreat  cost  and  with  an  interval  of  suffer- 
ing. The  soil  which  is  washed  from  the 
surface  of  our  farms  every  year  to  the 
.amount  of  a  billion  tons,  making,  with 
the  further  loss  of  fertilizing  elements 
carried  away  in  solution,  the  heaviest  tax 
the  farmer  has  to  pay,  may  in  the  course 
•of  centuries  be  replaced  by  the  chemical 
disintegration  of  the  rock;  but  it  is  de- 
•cidedly  wiser  to  keep  what  we  have  by 
•careful  methods  of  cultivation.  We  may 
very  profitably  stop  putting  our  farms 
into  our  streams,  to  be  dug  out  at  great 
•expense  through  river  and  harbor  appro- 
priations. Fertile  soil  is  not  wanted  in 
the  bed  of  a  stream,  and  it  is  wanted  on 
-the  surface  of  the  soil  of  the  farms  and 
the  forest-covered  slopes  of  the  moun- 
tains; yet  we  spend  m'lllons  upon  mil- 
lions of  dollars  every  year  removing 
from  our  rivers  what  ought  never  to 
have  got  into  them. 

A  MONOPOLY  OF  OUR  GREATEST  NATURAL 

RESOURCE;,  WATER  POWER,  SHOULD 

BE  PREVENTED 

Besides    exhausting    the    unrenewable 

;and  impairing  the  renewable  resources, 

we  have  left  unused  vast  resources  which 

are  capable  of  adding  enormously  to  the 

^wealth    of    the    country.     Our    streams 


have  been  used  mainly  in  the  West  for 
irrigation  and  mainly  in  the  East  for 
navigation.  It  has  not  occurred  to  us 
that  a  stream  is  valuable  not  merely  for 
one,  but  for  a  considerable  number  of 
uses ;  that  these  uses  are  not  mutually 
exclusive,  and  that  to  obtain  the  full  ben- 
efit of  what  the  stream  can  do  for  us  we 
should  plan  to  develop  all  uses  together. 
For  example,  when  the  national  govern- 
ment builds  dams  for  navigation  on 
streams,  it  often  disregards  the  possible 
use,  for  power,  of  the  water  that  flows 
over  those  dams.  Engineers  say  that 
many  hundred  thousand  horse-power  are 
going  to  waste  over  government  dams  in 
this  way.  Since  a  fair  price  for  power, 
where  it  is  in  demand,  is  from  $20  to  $80 
per  horse-power  per  year,  it  will  be  seen 
that  the  government  has  here — devel- 
oped yet  lying  idle — a  resource  capable 
of  adding  enormously  to  the  natural 
wealth.  So,  also,  in  developing  the 
western  streams  for  irrigation,  in  many 
places  irrigation  and  power  might  be 
made  to  go  hand  in  hand. 

If  the  public  does  not  see  to  it  that  the 
control  of  water  power  is  kept  in  the 
hands  of  the  public,  we  are  certain  in  the 
near  future  to  find  ourselves  in  the  grip 
of  those  who  will  be  able  to  control,  with 
a  monopoly  absolutely  without  parallel 
in  the  past,  the  daily  life  of  our  people. 
Let  us  suppose  a  man  in  a  western  town, 
in  a  region  without  coal,  rising  on  a  cold 
morning,  a  few  years  hence,  when  in- 
vention and  enterprise  have  brought  to 
pass  the  things  which  we  can  already 
foresee  as  coming  in  the  application  of 
electricity.  He  turns  on  the  electric 
light  made  from  water  power ;  his  break- 
fast is  cooked  on  an  electric  stove  heated 
by  the  power  of  the  streams ;  his  morn- 
ing newspaper  is  printed  on  a  press 
moved  by  electricity  from  the  streams; 
he  goes  to  his  office  in  a  trolley  car 
moved  by  electricity  from  the  same 
source.  The  desk  upon  which  he  writes 
his  letters,  the  merchandise  which  he 
sells,  the  crops  which  he  raises,  will  have 
been  brought  to  him  or  will  be  taken  to 
market  from  him  in  a  freight  car  moved 
by  electricity.  His  wife  will  run  her 


AN  AMERICAN  FABLE 


349 


sewing-machine  or  her  churn  and  fac- 
tories will  turn  their  shafts  and  wheels 
by  the  same  power.  In  every  activity  of 
his  life  that  man  and  his  family  and  his 
neighbors  will  have  to  pay  toll  to  those 
who  have  been  able  to  monopolize  the 
great  motive  power  of  electricity  made 
from  water  power,  if  that  monopoly  is 
allowed  to  become  established.  Never 
before  in  the  history  of  this  or  any  other 
free  country  has  there  existed  the  possi- 
bility of  such  intimate  daily  contact  be- 
tween a  monopoly  and  the  life  of  the 
average  citizen. 

It  has  not  yet  occurred  to  our  people 
that  this  great  power  should  be  con- 
served for  the  use  of  the  public.  We 
have  regarded  it  as  a  thing  to  be  given 
away  to  any  man  who  would  take  it.  We 
have  carried  over  our  point  of  view,  de- 
rived from  the  early  conditions,  when  it 
was  a  godsend  to  have  a  man  come  into 
the  country  to  develop  power,  and  we 
were  willing  to  give  him  anything  to  in- 
duce him  to  come.  We  have  carried 
over  that  point  of  view  into  a  time  when 
the  dread  of  a  monopoly  of  this  kind 
ought  to  be  in  the  mind  of  the  average 
man  everywhere.  That  is  an  instance 
of  a  resource  neglected  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  public. 

But  this  is  a  time  to  consider  not  one 
resource,  but  all  resources  together. 
Already  here  and  there  small  associa- 
tions of  citizens  have  become  possessed 
of  certain  facts,  and  have  begun  to 
work  at  certain  sides  of  what  is  funda- 
mentally one  great  problem.  We  have 
a  drainage  association,  whose  object  is 
to  make  habitable  millions  upon  millions 
of  acres  now  lying  waste  in  swamps  all 
over  the  country,  but  capable  of  support- 
ing millions  of  people  in  comfort.  We 
have  forestry  associations,  waterway  as- 
sociations, irrigation  associations,  asso- 
ciations of  many  kinds  touching  this 
problem  of  conservation  at  different 
points,  each  endeavoring  to  benefit  the 
common  weal  along  !ts  own  line,  but 
each  interested  only  in  its  own  particular 
piece  of  the  work  and  unaware  that  it  is 


attacking  the  outside,  not  the  heart,  of 
the  problem. 

Now  a  greater  work  appears.  Since 
this  problem  of  the  conservation  of  nat- 
ural resources  is  a  single  question,  each 
of  these  various  bodies  that  have  been 
working  at  different  phases  of  it  must 
come  together  on  a  common  platform. 
By  the  joining  of  these  units  we  shall 
have  a  mass  of  intelligent,  interested, 
public-spirited  citizens  anxious  to  adopt 
a  new  point  of  view  about  this  country 
of  ours. 

That  is  the  crux  of  the  whole  matter— 
a  new  point  of  view  about  our  country. 
We  have  been  so  busy  getting  rich,  de- 
veloping, and  growing,  so  proud  of  our 
growth,  that  we  have  let  things  go  on 
until  some  intolerable  abuse  has  com- 
pelled immediate  action  to  cut  it  off.  It 
is  time  that  we  put  an  end  to  this  kind  of 
opportunism,  of  mere  drifting.  We  must 
take  the  point  of  view  taken  by  the  aver- 
age prudent  business  man,  or  man  in  any 
walk  of  life  who  has  property  and  is  in- 
terested in  it.  What  the  average  man 
does  in  his  own  affairs  is  to  foresee  trou- 
ble and  avoid  it  if  he  can.  What  this 
nation  of  ours  is  doing  in  this  funda- 
mental matter  of  natural  resources  is  to 
run  right  up  against  the  trouble  and  make 
that  trouble  inevitable  before  taking  any 
step  to  head  it  off.  But  it  should  not  take 
long  to  reach  the  stage  where  we  shall 
deliberately  plan  to  avoid  the  difficulties 
which  can  be  foreseen,  if  we  can  bring 
together  all  who  have  already  begun  to 
concern  themselves  with  one  or  another 
aspect  of  the  conservation  problem. 

THE  PRESENT  IS  ONE  OF  THE  MOST  CRITI- 
CAL   POINTS   OF   OUR    HISTORY 

This  nation  has,  on  the  continent  of 
North  America,  three  and  a  half  million 
square  miles.  What  shall  we  do  with 
it?  How  can  we  make  ourselves  and 
our  children  happiest,  most  vigorous  and 
efficient,  and  our  civilization  the  highest 
and  most  influential,  as  we  use  that 
splendid  heritage?  Shall  not  the  nation 
undertake  to  answer  that  question  in  the 


35° 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


spirit  of  wisdom,  prudence,  and  fore- 
sight? There  is  reason  to  think  we  are 
on  the  verge  of  doing  this  very  thing. 
We  are  on  the  verge  of  saying  to  our- 
selves, Let  us  do  the  best  we  can  with  our 
natural  resources;  let  us  find  out  what 
we  have,  how  they  can  best  be  used,  how 
they  can  best  be  conserved.  Above  all, 
let  us  have  clearly  in  mind  the  great  and 
fundamental  fact  that  this  nation  will 
not  end  in  the  year  1950,  or  a  hundred 
years  after  that,  or  five  hundred  years 
after  that;  that  we  are  just  beginning  a 
national  history  the  end  of  which  we 
cannot  see,  since  we  are  still  young.  In 
truth,  we  are  at  a  critical  point  in  that 
history.  As  President  Roosevelt  has 
said,  we  are  at  the  turning  of  the  ways. 
We  may  pass  on  along  the  line  we  have 
been  following,  exhaust  our  natural  re- 
sources, continue  to  let  the  future  take 
care  of  itself;  or  we  may  do  the  simple, 
obvious,  common-sense  thing  in  the  in- 
terest of  the  nation,  just  as  each  of  us 
does  in  his  own  personal  affairs. 

On  the  way  in  which  we  decide  to  han- 
dle this  great  possession  which  has  been 
given  us,  on  the  turning  which  we  take 
now,  hangs  the  welfare  of  those  who 
are  to  come  after  us.  Whatever  success 
we  may  have  in  any  other  line  of  na- 
tional endeavor;  whether  we  regulate 
trusts  properly;  whether  we  control  our 


great  public-service  corporations  as  we 
should;  whether  capital  and  labor  adjust 
their  relations  in  the  best  manner  or 
not — whatever  we  may  do  with  all  these 
and  other  questions,  behind  and  below 
them  all  is  this  fundamental  question, 
Are  we  going  to  protect  our  springs  of 
prosperity,  our  sources  of  well-being,  our 
raw  material  of  industry  and  commerce 
and  employer  of  capital  and  labor  com- 
bined, or  are  we  going  to  dissipate  them  ? 

According  as  we  accept  or  ignore  our 
responsibility  as  trustees  of  the  nation's 
welfare,  our  children  and  our  children's 
children  for  uncounted  generations  will 
call  us  blessed  or  will  lay  their  suffering 
at  our  doors.  We  shall  decide  whether 
their  lives,  on  the  average,  are  to  be  lived 
in  a  flourishing  country,  full  of  all  that 
helps  make  men  comfortable,  happy, 
strong,  and  effective,  or  whether  their 
lives  are  to  be  lived  in  a  country  like  the 
miserable  outworn  regions  of  the  earth 
which  other  nations  before  us  have  pos- 
sessed without  foresight  and  turned  into 
hopeless  deserts. 

We  are  no  more  exempt  from  the 
operation  of  natural  laws  than  are  the 
people  of  any  other  part  of  the  world. 

When  the  facts  are  squarely  before  us, 
when  the  magnitude  of  the  stake  is 
clearly  before  our  people,  surely  this 
question  will  be  decided  aright. 


HUNTING   BEARS  ON   HORSEBACK 


THE    remarkable    illustrations    on 
pages  352-355  were  sent  to  this 
magazine  by  Mr  Alan  D.  Wil- 
son  of   Philadelphia,   a   member   of  the 
National  Geographic  Society.    They  were 
taken  by  him  in  October,  1907,  during  a 
hunting  trip  in  Wyoming.     In   sending 
the  photographs  Mr  Wilson  writes: 

The  wolverine  and  bear  we  ran  with 
John  B.  Goff's  pack,  which  we  followed 
on  horseback,  and  which,  by  the  way,  is 
the  greatest  sport  I  have  ever  had.  I 


send  a  photograph  of  the  five  hounds, 
but  unfortunately  I  did  not  get  a  good 
photograph  of  the  eighteen  terriers  and 
mongrels,  who  made  up  the  fighting 
pack,  which  I  regret  extremely,  as  they 
were  the  cleverest,  gamest  lot  of  little 
rascals  I  ever  saw,  and  they  were  always 
the  ones  who  had  to  bear  the  brunt  of  the 
trouble. 

The  wolverine  is  interesting  and  the 
photograph  is,  I  think,  almost  unique, 
for  they  are  not  only  rare,  but  generally 


HUNTING  BEARS  ON  HORSEBACK 


35' 


prefer  to  go  over  the  rimrock,  when  the 
dogs  are  after  them,  rather  than  tree. 

All  our  hunting  was  done  in  the  na- 
tional timber  reserve  just  east  of  the 
Yellowstone  Park,  in  Big  Horn  County, 
Wyoming.  It  is  a  high,  rough,  broken, 
mountain  country,  and  we  were  hunting 
on  the  headwaters  of  the  following 
creeks  flowing  into  the  north  fork  of  the 
Shoshone  River:  Eagle,  Kitty,  Fish- 
hawk,  Sheep,  East  and  West  Black 
Water,  Wapiti  or  Elk  Fork,  Gun  Barrel 
or  Gothic,  Goff,  and  Clearwater — a  coun- 
try about  twenty-five  miles  east  and  west 
and  thirty-five  miles  north  and*  south, 
which  lies  about  fifty  miles  west  of  Cody, 
from  which  point  we  outfitted."  Air  the 
game  was  killed  south  of  the  Shoshone 
River. 

In  as  rough  a  country  as  this  is,  it 
takes  very  good  horse  flesh  to  do  the 
work,  for  the  bear  travels  pretty  fast, 
there  is  plenty  of  down  timber  in  the 
valleys,  and  a  great  deal  of  hard  climb- 
ing. Mr  Goff  has  a  picked  lot  of  horses, 
bigger  than  the  usual  western  pony,  and 
therefore  up  to  their  work,  and  all  of  his 
horses  will  either  pack  or  ride;  so  that 
we  were  able  to  have  four  fresh  horses  a 
day  and  then  not  work  a  horse  again  for 
three  or  four  days,  as  he  had  twenty-two 
horses  in  the  outfit.  I  never  could  see 
how  a  horse  could  be  as  sure-footed  or 
go  in  places  these  horses  did,  for  in  the 
course  of  bear  hunting  we  crossed  every 
divide  from  Eagle  Creek  to  Elk  Fork, 
six  in  number,  pretty  well  up  toward 
headwater  and  without  a  trail  other  than 
game  trails,  and  only  one  horse  went 
down  on  the  trip,  and  that  was  in  ford- 
ing a  deep  stream.  As  an  instance  of 
their  hardihood,  we  jumped  one  bear  at 
ii  a  m.,  followed  him  on  horseback  until 
5  p.  m.,  a  part  of  which  time  we  lost  the 
dogs  and  spent  a  couple  of  hours  before 
we  heard  them  again ;  finally  got  in  coun- 
try we  could  not  ride,  tied  up  the  horses, 
who  were  soaking  wet,  went. on  for  an 
hour  on  foot,  and  killed  the  bear  at  6 
p.  m.  By  the  time  we  had  dressed  him 
it  began  to  get  dark,  with  the  result  that 
we  lost  our  horses,  laid  out  all  night  on 


the  top  of  a  mountain,  and  in  the  morn- 
ing, when  we  found  the  horses,  none  of 
them  were  stiff  or  sore,  although  there 
had  been  a  hard  frost  in  the  night. 

The  dogs  of  course  deserve  the  chief 
credit.  Goff  has  a  splendid  pack,  which 
is  thoroughly  broken  not  to  run  deer,  elk, 
or  sheep.  The  hounds  of  course  do  the 
main:  work,  from  the  time  the  bear  track 
is  picked  up  until  the  bear  is  jumped,  but 
they  are  not  keen  to  go  in  and  fight,  and 
unless  you  have  something  that  will  do 
this,  and  dp-it  sufficiently  vigorously  to 
retard  progress,  there  is  not  much 
chance  of  keeping  up  with  them  on 
horseback  and  getting  a  shot  at  the  bear. 
This  is  where  the  fighting  pack  becomes 
all  important,  and  it  is  the  most  difficult 
thing  to  get  a  dog  properly  adapted  to 
the  work.  He  must  be  willing  to  run  for 
an  hour  or  so  with  the  hounds,  with  only 
anticipation  to  help  him  along,  until  the 
bear  is  jumped.  Then  he  must  have  not 
only  pluck  enough  to  go  in  and  fight,  but 
intelligence  enough  to  know  the  only 
chance  a  dog  has  with  a  bear  is  to  take 
an  occasional  nip,  and  then  get  out  of 
the  way ;  and,  further,  he  must  have 
sufficient  size  and  bone  to  be  able  to  keep 
up  with  the  hounds  over  a  big,  rough 
country. 

We  had  almost  everything  in  the 
pack :  Mongrel  bull  terriers,  stag  hounds 
(a  cross  between  a  stag  hound  and  a 
bull  terrier),  an  old  English  sheep  dog 
(a  cross  between  a  fox  terrier  and  a 
shepherd),  who,  by  the  way,  was  the 
greatest  hunter  and  gamest  dog  I  ever 
saw.  He  had  had  his  thigh  broken  by 
a  grizzly  six  months  before,  and  while 
with  us  was  bitten  through  the  face, 
but,  with  only  three  legs,  he  was  always 
at  the  head  of  the  fighting  pack.  We 
had  some  Irish  terriers  and  six  Aire- 
dales. The  bull  terriers  go  in  and  take 
hold  and  get  killed.  The  stag  hounds 
won't  stay  long  with  the  hounds  unless 
the  bear  is  properly  jumped.  Only  oc- 
casionally will  a  mongrel  develop  the 
proper  qualities.  The  Irish  terriers  are 
too  small  to  properly  run  the  country, 
but  the  big,  sturdy  Airedales  are  just 


352 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


HUNTING  BEARS  ON  HORSEBACK 


353 


Photo  by  Alan  D.  Wilson,   Philadelphia 
WOLVERINE   CLI.MIUXr,    A    TREE   TO   ESCAPE    PURSUING   DOGS 


354          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


Photo  by  Alan  D.  Wilson,   Philadelphia 
BEAR  CLIMBING  A  TREE  TO  ESCAPE  PURSUING  DOGS 


HUNTING  BEARS  ON  HORSEBACK 


355 


Photo  by  Alan   D.  Wilson,   Philadelphia 
THE    FISH    HAWK    CREEK    BEAR 


356 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


the  dogs  for  the  work.  They  have  a 
surprisingly  good  nose — good  enough  to 
run  a  trail  themselves  if  it  is  warm — 
and  are  therefore  interested  before  the 
bear  is  jumped.  They  will  stay  all  day 
with  the  hounds,  and  instinctively  they 
seem  to  know  just  exactly  how  to  fight 
a  bear  to  get  the  best  results  with  the 
least  damage  to  themselves.  Added  to 
this,  they  are  as  game  as  a  dog  can  be 
and  are  pleasant  to  have  about. 

A  brown  bear  which  we  ran  into  a 
hole,  where  the  dogs  followed  her,  pun- 
ished the  dogs  severely.  There  were  only 
eight  dogs  in  at  the  finish,  and  every 
one  of  them  was  badly  bitten  or  clawed, 
except  Old  Captain,  the  lead  hound  of 
the  pack,  who  wisely  would  not  go  in 
the  hole ;  yet  every  one  of  them,  after 
coming  out  and  licking  his  wounds  for 


a  few  minutes,  went  back  for  more,  and 
after  we  had  finally  smoked  out  the  bear, 
again  brought  her  to  bay  in  the  bed  of  a 
stream,  where  Mrs  Wilson  killed  her. 

I  am  sorry  that  I  have  no  good  photo- 
graph of  the  fighting  pack,  and  espe- 
cially of  Don,  the  little  cross  between  a 
fox  terrier  and  a  shepherd.  He  looked 
less  like  a  bear  dog  than  any  animal  I 
ever  saw,  but  his  courage  was  really 
pathetic,  for  he  was  sick  and  miserable 
from  his  wounds,  but  could  not  be  kept 
at  home,  and  when  he  got  close  to  a 
bear,  it  was  perfectly  evident  that  he  was 
seeing  "red."  Any  game  looked  good  to 
him,  however,  for  on  the  way  home  from 
killing  a  bear  he  would  joyfully  tree 
squirrels,  and  then  put  in  the  night 
hunting  pack  rats  and  mice. 


PERSIA:     THE   AWAKENING   EAST 


BY  W.  P.  CRESSON 

The  following  article  is  abstracted  from  a  new  book  on  Persia  just  pub- 
lished by  Messrs  J.  B.  Lippincott  Company,  of  Philadelphia,  entitled  "Persia, 
the  Awakening  Hast''  by  W.  P.  Cresson*  Persia,  one  of  the  oldest  kingdoms  in 
the  world,  is  now  undergoing  a  complete  transformation  in  administration  and 
in  commercial  life,  so  that  this  admirable  volume  is  particularly  useful  at  the 
present  time.  The  author  recently  spent  several  months  in  Persia,  being  the 
guest  of  the  American  Minister  to  Teheran,  and  had  exceptional  opportunities  for 
seeing  the  country.  Particularly  good  chapters  are:  The  Religions  of  Persia; 
A  Visit  to  the  Sacred  City  of  Kum;  Hawking  in  Persia;  Bagdad  of  Today;  A 
Pilgrimage  to  Kerbela;  The  Persian  Gulf.  The  article  is  copyrighted  by  J.  B. 
Lippincott  Co. 


WE   entered   Persia   by   way   of 
the   Caspian,   stopping  first, 
however,   at   the   wonderful 
Russian  oil-fields  at  Baku,  near  the  Per- 
sian frontier.     Marco  Polo,  in  his  fasci- 
nating book  of  travels,  speaks  of  them  as 
follows : 

"On  the  confines  towards  Georgianna 
there  is  a  fountain  from  which  oil 
springs  in  great  abundance,  insomuch 
that  a  hundred  ship-loads  might  be  taken 
from  it  at  one  time.  This  oil  is  not  good 
to  use  with  food,  but  it  is  good  to  burn, 


and  is  also  used  to  anoint  camels  that 
have  the  mange.  People  come  from  vast 
distances  to  fetch  it,  for  in  all  countries 
around  have  they  no  other  oil." 

The  oil-fields  were  exploited  many 
centuries  before  the  arrival  of  the  Rus- 
sians, but  it  is  only  within  the  last  twenty 
years  that  the  commerce  in  naphtha  has 
become  the  most  important  industry  of 
the  Caucasus.  Good  Sir  Marco  would 
have  been  surprised  to  know  that  future 
generations  would  find  in  his  "burning 
spring"  a  mine  of  riches  compared  to 


*  Pp.  300.     Illustrated.     $3.50. 


PERSIA:    THE  AWAKENING  EAST 


357 


which  the  treasures  of  Golconda  pale 
into  insignificance,  and  that  on  the  desert 
near  by  would  arise  a  great  city,  peopled 
by  a  restless  throng  of  wealth-seekers 
drawn  from  every  corner  of  the  globe. 

The  drive  from  the  railway  station  to 
the  oil-fields  lay  along  a  slippery  road, 
deep  with  oily  mud,  into  which  our  con- 
veyance sank  almost  to  the  hub.  By  the 
wayside,  half-naked  Tatars  were  busily 
skimming  the  waste  oil  from  the  surface 
of  _  slimy  pools  and  rivulets,  and  our 
guide  told  us  that  even  at  this  miserable 
business  they  make  an  excellent  profit. 
To  touch  foot  to  the  ground  meant  irre- 
trievable ruin  to  boots  and  clothing,  so 
that  every  one  (even  the  natives)  rode, 
and  a  file  of  rickety  vehicles  stretched  in 
a  continuous  procession  along  the  nar- 
row highway.  Every  form  of  wheeled 
conveyance  was  represented,  from 
spring  wagons  of  American  make  to 
high  Turcoman  carts  set  on  enormous 
wheels  often  eight  feet  or  more  in  diam- 
eter. 

The  surface  of  the  country  surround- 
ing the  oil-fields  seemed  literally  to  ex- 
ude crude  petroleum,  and  the  stench 
from  the  slough  through  which  we  were 
slowly  traveling  was  indescribable,  al- 
though fortunately  by  this  time  we  were 
beginning  to  grow  accustomed  to  the 
odor. 

As  we  approached  nearer,  the  clank  of 
pulleys  and  windlass  filled  the  air.  In 
every  one  of  the  tall  timber  pyramids 
that  covered  the  mouth  of  the  narrow 
"borings"  a  Tatar  workman  watched  the 
simple  mechanism  that  lets  down  a  long 
metal  bucket  into  the  bowels  of  the  earth 
and  draws  it  up  filled  with  crude  petro- 
leum mixed  with  water  and  sand.  Within 
recent  years  American  tools  and  methods 
have  increased  the  output  of  the  wells  a 
hundred-fold.  The  present  system  of 
boring  is  copied  from  the  methods  used 
in  the  Pennsylvania  oil-fields,  and  many 
of  the  engineers  who  direct  the  opera- 
tion for  the  Russian  companies  are 
Americans  or  Englishmen.  In  the  old 
days,  under  the  reign  of  the  petroleum 
monopoly,  the  Russian  concessionaires 


were  content  to  confine  their  operations 
to  enlarging  the  natural  wells  and 
springs  of  naphtha  which  rise  to  the  sur- 
face of  the  earth  all  over  the  plateau  of 
Bala-Khane. 

But  with  the  advent  of  foreigners 
these  primitive  methods  have  been  aban- 
doned. The  wells  are  now  sunk  far 
down  through  sand  and  rock  in  search 
of  rich  strata  and  fresh  beds  of  oil  sand, 
and  the  costly  instruments  used  repre- 
sent the  triumph  of  years  of  Yankee  in- 
genuity and  experience  in  the  oil-fields 
of  the  New  World.  In  spite  of  fears  to 
the  contrary,  there  appears  no  end  to  the 
supply  of  crude  petroleum.  Even  at  the 
time  of  their  maximum  output,  the  flow 
of  oil  from  the  wells  of  Baku  was  appar- 
ently undiminished.  Under  the  plateau 
of  Bala-Khane  lies  an  underground  sea 
of  naphtha,  and  in  some  places  but  a  few 
yards  of  oil-soaked  earth  covers  this  nat- 
ural reservoir.  Once  the  "crust"  has 
been  pierced  by  the  drill,  the  oil  comes 
gushing  of  its  own  accord  to  the  surface, 
driven  by  the  force  of  natural  gases. 
Just  before  the  riots  of  1905,  the  yearly 
output  of  the  oil-wells  of  Baku  amounted 
to  more  than  twelve  and  one-half  million 
tons  of  refined  oil,  and  the  most  impor- 
tant problem  confronting  the  oil  compa- 
nies was  that  of  mutually  limiting  their 
output  in  order  to  keep  the  price  at  a 
profitable  figure. 

During  our  visit  we  had  an  oppor- 
tunity to  view  at  close  quarters  the  wild 
hordes  of  Tatar  workmen  employed  in 
the  oil-fields.  A  more  abject  and  de- 
graded lot  of  human  beings  it  would  be 
difficult  to  find  anywhere  on  the  face  of 
the  earth.  Their  villages  of  mud  huts 
were  set  down  on  the  treeless,  sandy 
plain,  far  enough  away  from  the  wells 
for  them  to  light  their  cooking  fires  in 
safety,  and  here  we  found  the  stench  of 
oil.  added  to  the  all-pervadirg  odors  of 
Oriental  housekeeping,  almost  overpow- 
ering. Some  of  the  foreign  companies 
make  a  pretense  of  housing  their  work- 
men in  long  wooden  sheds,  which  are 
forcibly  cleaned  at  rare  intervals,  but  by 
far  the  greater  number  live  in  rough  en- 


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campments,  where  they  are  at  liberty  to 
satisfy  their  own  ideals  of  comfort  and 
sanitation. 

Most  of  these  workmen  in  the  oil- 
fields are  Mohammedans,  and,  strange  to 
say,  their  piety  is  a  source  of  constant 
annoyance  to  their  employers.  In  view 
of  the  recent  controversy  in  the  Amer- 
ican newspapers  concerning  the  oil- 
tainted"  contributions  of  a  well-known 
magnate  to  the  funds  of  a  foreign  mis- 
sionary society,  the  following  incident 
of  our  visit  to  the  oil-fields  of  Bala- 
Khane  may  not  be  without  interest.  As 
we  were  being  shown  through  the 
pumping-house  belonging  to  a  Russian 
company,  our  guide,  a  sturdy  Dutchman 
from  the  oil-fields  of  Pennsylvania,  sud- 
denly came  upon  a  Tatar  workman  lying 
prostrate,  his  face  toward  Mecca,  on  a 
strip  of  greasy  carpet  among  the  idle 
machinery.  Without  giving  him  time  to 
struggle  to  his  feet,  our  friend  raised 
him  more  suddenly  than  gently  with  a 
well-applied  kick: 

"Choist  look  at  dese  fellows !"  he  ex- 
claimed, indignantly;  "ve  haf  to  vatch 
dem  or  dey  pray  de  whole  tarn  time!" 

"Vat  mit  Mohammedan  feast  days  and 
Russian  saints'  days  ve  get  no  work  done 
at  all.  Vat  ve  need  is  a  cargo  of  good 
missionaries  to  convert  de  whole  tarn 
lot."  he  added  vindictively. 

Here  is  a  new  aspect  of  the  missionary 
question,  which  has,  perhaps,  never  been 
given  proper  consideration  at  home ! 

Shortly  after  the  commencement  of 
the  Japanese  war  a  general  strike  broke 
out  at  Baku,  and  the  wild  workmen  of 
Bala-Khane  marched  on  the  town,  leav- 
ing behind  them,  in  place  of  the  scene  of 
busv  industry  I  have  described,  the  fire- 
blackened  ruins  of  a  few  pump-houses 
and  the  burning  craters  of  hundreds  of 
oil-wells.  Thus  in  the  short  space  of  a 
few  hours  the  petroleum  industry  of 
Baku  was  literally  wiped  from  the  face 
of  the  earth.  But  while  the  oil-fields 
have  never  recovered  their  former  pro- 
ductiveness, the  damage  is  now  being 
gradually  repaired,  and  Russian  oil  once 
more  supplies  the  markets  of  southern 
Europe  and  the  middle  East. 


RUSSIAN     J-. \TKRPRISE    IN    NORTHERN 

PERSIA 

The  road  leading  from  the  shores  of 
the  Caspian  to  the  capital  of  Persia  has 
been  open  to  general  traffic  for  several 
years.  Considered  merely  as  a  financial 
investment,  the  million  and  a  half  dollars 
expended  by  the  Russians  in  building 
this  fine  highway  may  seem  out  of  all 
proportion  to  the  returns,  but  there  can 
be  no  question  as  to  the  important  part 
it  has  played  in  forwarding  Russian  in- 
terests in  northern  Persia.  Its  fame  has 
gone  abroad  through  every  caravansary 
of  the  middle  East,  and  where  a  railroad 
would  have  disturbed  a  host  of  ancient 
customs  and  privileges  dear  to  the  in- 
habitants of  the  country,  this  new  way 
has  only  lightened  the  difficulties  and 
hardships  that  once  beset  travelers  and 
traffic  on  the  old  caravan  road.  Xe\v 
villages  are  springing  up  everywhere 
along  the  route,  and  the  Russians  take 
good  care  that  the  inhabitants  should 
know  that  to  Russian  enterprise  alone 
this  happy  change  in  their  fortunes  is 
due. 

The  engineering  work  of  the  Resht 
post-road  has  been  carried  out  in  a  thor- 
oughly durable  manner.  Often  hewn 
from  the  solid  rock  of  the  mountain  side 
or  crossing  deep  ravines  by  girder 
bridges  of  the  most  modern  construc- 
tion, it  forms  a  striking  example  of  the 
Russian  policy  of  "peaceful  penetration" 
that  owes  its  inception  to  the  real  "strong 
man"  of  Russia,  Serge  de  Witte. 

Following  the  natural  path  of  least  re- 
sistance, sometimes  high  above  us  on  the 
mountain  side,  sometimes  winding  along 
the  valley  below,  I  could  make  out  the 
fading  gray  streak  of  what  was  once  the 
old  Persian  caravan  track.  From  time 
immemorial  this  ancient  road  had  been 
the  irreat  commercial  highway  between 
the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea  and  the  rich 
provinces  of  northern  Persia.  Most  of 
the  trade  of  Khorassan  still  follows  tin's 
route  until  it  reaches  the  Russian  rail- 
ways in  the  Caucasus,  while  merchandise 
transported  from  Russia  is  sold  in  every 
bazaar  as  far  as  the  Afghan  frontier. 


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The  post  carriages  and  four-wheeled 
freight  wagons  brought  from  Europe 
are  still  comparatively  rare,  and  the 
greater  part  of  the  merchandise  is  car- 
ried by  means  of  caravans  and  droves  of 
pack  animals.  During  our  first  day's 
journey  we  passed  thousands  of  camels 
traveling  in  long  files  stretching  some- 
times for  a  quarter  of  a  mile  without  a 
break,  each  fastened  by  a  long  cord  at- 
tached to  a  ring  fixed  in  its  supercilious 
nose  to  the  saddle  of  the  one  ahead.  The 
Bactrian  camels  used  on  these  cold 
mountain  trails  of  northern  Persia  are 
very  different  in  appearance  from  the 
gaunt,  apocalyptic  beasts  seen  in  the  des- 
erts of  Egypt.  Indeed,  the  true  Bactrian 
is  a  very  handsome  animal  (judged  at 
least  by  the  standards  of  camel  beauty), 
his  neck  and  shoulders  covered  with  a 
long  growth  of  soft  brown  hair,  which 
hides  the  rude  outlines  of  his  powerful 
frame.  A  good  Persian  camel  is  capa- 
ble of  carrying  with  ease  a  load  of  a 
thousand  pounds,  and  as  they  are  often 
the  whole  fortune  of  their  owners,  they 
are  treated  with  the  best  of  care  and 
attention. 

THROUGH   A  DESERT  LAND 

Now  and  again  the  white  gleam  of  a 
salt  marsh,  seen  on  the  horizon,  or  the 
pearly  mist  of  a  distant  mirage  would 
persuade  us  that  we  were  approaching 
the  life-giving  presence  of  water — an 
illusion  which  receded  or  disappeared  on 
our  nearer  approach. 

The  traveler,  read  in  the  poetry  and 
literature  of  the  Golden  East,  soon 
learns  to  appreciate  the  Oriental's  point 
of  view  in  judging  the  beauties  of  na- 
ture. Compared  to  the  verdant  scenery 
of  Europe,  there  is  little  to  admire  in 
the  landscape  of  northern  Persia ;  yet 
these  lonely  wastes  are  not  without  a 
certain  wild  beauty  of  their  own.  The 
great  drama  of  morning  and  evening 
tints  the  desert  with  wonderful  hues  that 
shift  and  blend  like  the  changing  colors 
of  the  sea,  and  in  the  fierce  light  of  noon- 
day strange  cloud  shadows  play  across 
its  surface,  relieving  the  monotonous 
uniformity  of  rock  and  sand. 


Contrast,  indeed,  is  the  keynote  of 
desert  life.  No  gardens  have  ever 
seemed  to  me  half  so  beautiful  as  some 
walled  inclosure,  filled  with  scanty  rows 
of  orange  and  lemon  trees,  found  at  the 
end  of  a  long  day's  ride  across  the  arid 
Persian  plain.  No  fruit  has  ever  had  so 
rare  a  taste  as  the  little  yellow  citrons 
brought  us  by  Persian  peasants,  in  some 
dusty  caravansary,  as  we  lay  resting  our 
weary  limbs  among  our  saddle-bags  on 
the  hard  mud  floor. 

To  the  poets  of  Persia  we  owe  the 
common  impression  that  their  beloved 
country  is  a  land  of  gardens  and  flowers. 
Their  Oriental  imagination  has  woven  a 
veil  of  romance  about  the  "Fields  of 
Iran,"  while  throughout  the  greater  part 
of  the  Shah's  dominions  the  very  reverse 
of  this  legend  of  fertility  is  nearer  the 
truth.  The  life  of  the  Persian  peasant 
is  one  long  struggle  with  the  adverse 
forces  of  nature.  Such  rare  cultivation 
as  we  saw  depended  entirely  on  artificial 
irrigation  by  means  of  underground 
channels  leading  to  distant  reservoirs 
among  the  mountains  that  generations 
of  toilers  have  hollowed  out  with  in- 
finite pains,  often  hundreds  of  feet  below 
the  level  of  the  land.  The  few  villages 
that  we  passed  were  miserable  collec- 
tions of  mud  huts  whose  inhabitants 
earned  a  precarious  existence  by  trading 
with  the  travelers  along  the  caravan 
road. 

A    CITY    OF    CONTRASTS 

The  sentimental  traveler  visiting  Te- 
heran for  the  first  time,  who  expects 
to  find  in  the  Shah's  capital  some  fabu- 
lous city  of  the  "Arabian  Nights/'  is 
destined  to  be  disappointed.  Persia  has 
long  since  awakened  from  her  golden 
dream  of  the  past.  Like  Japan,  the 
Land  of  the  Lion  and  the  Sun  has  fallen 
under  the  spell  of  Western  ideas,  and 
the  Persian  of  today  is  striving  to  adapt 
his  ancient  civilization  to  the  way-  and 
customs  of  Europe  with  the  same  en- 
ergy and  lack  of  discrimination  that 
characterize  the  victorious  sons  of 
Nippon. 

In  Persian  eves,  at  least,  Teheran  is  a 


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European  city.  The  wide  streets  and 
tree-lined  avenues  of  the  newer  quarter 
of  the  town  date  from  the  reign  of  Shah 
Nasr-ed-Din,  grandfather  of  the  present 
Shah,  who  returned  from  a  visit  to  Eu- 
rope fired  with  the  ambition  of  trans- 
forming his  capital  into  an  Oriental 
Paris.  But  the  Persian  of  the  lower 
classes  is  a  fanatical  conservative;  the 
strange  madness  that  drives  his  rulers  to 
leave  the  blessed  shores  of  Iran  to  wan- 
der in  infidel  lands  beyond  the  seas 
seems  to  him  wholly  foreign  and  dis- 
tasteful. The  Shahs  of  the  present  dy- 
nasty have  spent  large  sums  in  enlarg- 
ing and  embellishing  their  capital,  and 
while  Teheran  can  scarcely  be  said  to 
rival  the  natural  beauties  of  Shiraz  or 
the  architectural  splendors  of  Ispahan, 
it  is  now  considered  the  metropolis  of 
Persia. 

The  climate  of  this  part  of  the  Iranian 
plateau,  varying  from  extreme  heat  in 
summer  to  bitter  cold  during  the  winter 
months,  leaves  much  to  be  desired.  On 
account  of  the  high  elevation,  sudden 
and  violent  changes  of  temperature 
occur ;  and  I  remember  witnessing,  soon 
after  our  arrival,  the  curious  spectacle 
of  a  rose  garden  in  full  bloom  suddenly 
overwhelmed  and  buried  beneath  a  fall 
of  early  snow.  To  these  discomforts 
must  be  added  the  high  winds,  which 
raise  clouds  of  choking  dust  and  sand 
from  the  broad  unpaved  streets  during 
the  drv  months  of  the  year.  Neverthe- 
less, Teheran  is  a  very  healthful  spot, 
and  in  spite  of  the  primitive  methods  of 
sanitation  still  in  vogue,  the  death  rate 
among  its  population  remains  compara- 
tively low. 

The  varied  types  of  humanity  that  go 
to  make  up  the  population  of  the  "City 
of  Contrasts"  are  perhaps  never  seen  to 
such  striking  advantage  as  on  some 
sunny  winter's  day  on  this  favorite 
promenade  of  the  citizens  of  Teheran. 
Threading  his  way  carefullv  through  the 
streams  of  traffic,  a  fat  mollah  ambles  by 
on  a  lazy  mule,  toward  the  mosque. 
Next  comes  a  smart  young  attache  from 
the  foreign  legations,  on  his  way  to  play 
polo  on  the  Maidan,  or  a  Cossack  of  the 


Shah's  body-guard,  dressed  as  nearly 
like  a  Russian  soldier  as  possible.  A 
court  official  in  a  Parisian  landau,  sur- 
rounded by  a  galloping  troop  of  attend- 
ants, goes  charging  through  the  crowd, 
with  loud  cries  of  "Kabardah !  Kabar- 
dah !"  ("Make  way!  make  way!"). 
Next,  a  wild-eyed  dervish  adds  his  loud 
cries  to  the  general  confusion,  in  an  in- 
solent demand  for  the  alms  of  the  Faith- 
ful; or  a  party  of  Persian  women,  in 
baggy  black  pantaloons,  their  faces  hid- 
den by  thick  linen  masks,  pass  in  single 
file,  under  the  escort  of  a  negro  eunuch. 
And  at  intervals  the  finishing  touch  is 
added  to  this  Oriental  scene  when  a 
tramway,  crowded  to  the  roof  with  na- 
tive passengers,  goes  jostling  its  way 
through  the  long  files  of  camels  and 
pack-horses  on  their  way  to  the  ba- 
zaars— perhaps  the  most  popular  Euro- 
pean innovation  in  the  Persian  capital. 

THE    BAZAARS 

While  the  broad  streets  and  squares  of 
the  new  quarters  of  Teheran  give  the 
many  parts  of  the  city  quite  a  European 
appearance,  the  older  quarters  that  lie 
about  the  bazaar  still  retain  all  the  char- 
acteristics of  the  Orient.  Here,  in  a 
labyrinth  of  narrow  lanes  and  alleyways, 
where  even  the  oldest  Teherani  often 
finds  himself  at  a  loss  which  way  to  turn, 
centers  the  whole  commercial  life  of  the 
city.  In  Teheran,  as  in  most  of  the  cities 
of  northern  Persia,  the  main  bazaar  con- 
sists of  a  series  of  long  passageways 
covered  by  a  roof  of  vaulted  brick-work. 
Between  the  buttresses  that  support  the 
roof  are  narrow  niches  which  serve  as 
shops  and -booths,  and  these  again  open 
at  the  back  into  great  court-yards  or 
"caravansaries,"  where  the  goods  are 
stored  on  their  arrival,  and  where  the 
weary  camels  and  pack  animals  of  the 
caravan  road  are  stabled  after  their  long 
journey.  Few  of  the  largest  of  these 
shops  are  more  than  twenty  feet  square, 
and  the  merchant,  sitting  on  a  narrow 
ledge  or  counter  before  his  booth,  is 
within  easy  reach  of  every  article  in  his 
stock ;  yet  the  amount  of  business  trans- 
acted in  this  primitive  way  is  often  con- 


PERSIA:    THE  AWAKENING  EAST 


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siderable  and  many  of  the  bazaar  mer- 
chants are  rich  men,  judged  even  by  the 
.standard  of  New  York  and  London'. 

There  are  still  a  few  good  curios  to  be 
picked  up  in  the  bazaars;  but  a  majority 
<>f  the  articles  exposed  for  sale  are  man- 
ufactured in  Europe,  while  most  of  the 
native  rugs  and  carpets  show  the  regret- 
table influence  of  Etiropjan  patterns  and 
aniline  dyes.  It  is  unfortunately  true 
that  throughout  the  East  today  the 
machine-made  products  of  the  "unbe- 
liever are  everywhere  crowding  out  the 
fabrics  of  the  old  hand  worker.  Indeed, 
many  famous  Oriental  industries  are  fast 
•disappearing,  and  the  native  craftsmen 
work  only  for  export  to  the  European 
market,  while  their  compatriots  prefer 
the  cheaper  if  less  esthetic  patterns  of 
the  Occident.  Thus  the  fine  cloths  once 
manufactured  in  Resht  and  Kashan  have 
given  way  before  the  products  of  Man- 
chester and  Odessa.  Even  the  coarse 
canvas-like  stuff,  the  universal  dress  of 
the  poorer  classes  in  Persia,  which  was 
once  woven  during  the  winter  months  on 
'Crude  native  looms,  now  comes  in 
greater  part  from  the  Yankee  mills  of 
Connecticut,  while  New  York  and  Bir- 
mingham are  as  familiar  names  today  in 
the  bazaars  of  Teheran  as  were  once 
those  of  Bokhara  and  Bagdad. 

A  whole  quarter  of  the  bazaars  of 
Teheran  is  given  over  to  the  sale  of 
European  goods,  usually  of  the  cheapest 
and  shoddiest  description.  At  one  time 
most  of  these  shops  were  supplied  with 
English  wares,  but  of  late  years  the  Rus- 
sians have  secured  for  themselves  a 
lion's  share  of  the  general  trade  of 
northern  Persia. 

DEMANDS     I'OR    A    CONSTITUTION 

The  strong  nationalistic  spirit  that 
marks  the  new  era  in  Persian  affairs  is 
one  of  the  most  interesting  features  of 
the  present  movement  in  Persia.  It  is 
not  amon<j  the  frock-coated  European 
dandies  of  the  court  that  we  must  look 
for  the  men  who  are  now  taking  the 
leading  part  in  the  new  agitation  for  re- 
form. Many  of  the  constitutionalistic 


leaders  \\ear  the  Mowing  robes  and  white- 
turban  of  the  Mohammedan  priesthood. 
Krcenily  the  Liberal  Parliament  by  an 
overwhelming  majority  voted  to  sup- 
press  the  publication  of  a  Teheran  news- 
paper which  had  dared  to  propose  the 
substitution  of  a  new  civil  code  modeled 
on  European  lines  for  the  old  common 
law  based  on  the  precepts  of  the  Koran. 
One  of  the  chief  causes  of  popular  com- 
plaint against  the  leaders  of  the  Court 
part\  is  their  subserviency  to  foreign  in- 
fluences and  their  unpatriotic  policy  of 
importing  foreign  officials  into  Persia, 
notably  in  the  case  of  the  customs  ad- 
ministration. 

The  Mutjehids,  or  religious  law- 
givers, at  one  time  started  in  a  body  for 
the  sacred  city  of  Kerbela  as  a  protest 
against  the  fashion  in  which  their  advice 
and  demands  were  ignored  by  the  Court 
party,  and  had  already  proceeded  for 
some  distance  on  their  way  before  the 
latter  were  constrained  to  relent.  In  the 
meanwhile  the  Liberal  leaders  in  Tehe- 
ran, fearing  the  vengeance  of  the  troops 
in  the  pay  of  the  government,  had  taken 
refuge  in  the  compound  of  the  British 
legation,  where,  according  to  treaty 
rights,  they  were  safe  against  arrest  or 
persecution.  It  was  reported  at  the  time 
that  no  less  than  13,000  inhabitants  of 
Teheran  had  thus  thrown  themselves  on 
the  mercy  of  a  foreign  government. 

Alarmed  by  this  determined  though 
pacific  resistance,  and  by  the  sympathetic 
attitude  of  a  large  part  of  the  population, 
the  late  Shah's  advisers  at  last  decided  to 
yield,  and  a  manifesto  was  issued  in  the 
name  of  Muzaffar-ed-Din  calling  for  a 
dunia,  or  popular  assembly.  The  docu- 
ment summoning  the  first  Persian  Par- 
liament was  weirded  as  follow.-: 

"The  Shah,  since  his  accessi  .11  to  the 
throne,  has  always  had  the  intention  to 
introduce  real  and  efficient  reforms  I'M 
all  the  departments  of  the  state,  so  a-  to 
further  the  well-being  of  his  people.  For 
this  purpose  His  Maicsty  has  now  de- 
rided that  a  national  council  shall  be 
formed  at  Teheran,  composed  of  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Kajar  princes  (the 


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Photo  and  Copyright  by  Underwocd  &  Underwood,  New  York 
CROWD   OF   PERSIAN    REVOLUTIONISTS 

Who,    fearing   the   vengeance    of   the    royal    troops,   took   refuge   in   the   British    Legation   in 
Teheran  in  1906,  and  insisted  on  remaining  there  until  the  Shah  gave  them  a  Parliament 


PERSIA:    THE  AWAKENING  EAST 


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royal  tribe),  clergy,  nobles,  merchants, 
and  tradesmen.  Ihese  representatives 
will  be  elected  by  their  peers.  The  na- 
tional council  shall  deliberate  on  all  im- 
portant affairs  of  state,  and  shall  have 
the  power  and  right  to  express  its  views 
with  freedom  and  full  confidence  in  re- 
gard to  all  reforms  which  may  be  neces- 
sary to  the  welfare  of  the  country.  The 
result  of  the  deliberations  of  the  council 
shall  be  submitted  through  the  inter- 
mediary of  the  First  Minister  of  State  to 
the  Shah  for  His  Majesty's  signature, 
and  shall  then  be  carried  into  effect.  The 
rules  of  procedure  of  the  national  coun- 
cil shall  be  drawn  up  with  the  approval 
of  the  members  and  shall  receive  the 
Shah's  signature.  The  council,  after  de- 
termining its  rules  of  procedure,  shall 
then  begin  to  give  effect  to  the  sacred 
laws  of  Islam  and  to  introduce  the  nec- 
essary reforms." 

Thus  was  accomplished,  by  an  almost 
bloodless  revolution,  the  same  laudable 
ends  that  ended  in  disastrous  failure, 
after  months  of  rapine  and  outrage,  just 
across  the  border  in  "civilized"  and 
"Christian"  Russia !  Certainly  an  en- 
couraging and  instructive  sign  of  the 
march  of  events  in  the  "awakening 
Hast." 

The  first  Persian  national  convention 
was  made  up  of  delegates  from  all  over 
Persia,  but  most  came  from  the  northern 
provinces,  where  constant  contact  with 
the  restless  population  of  the  Caucasus 
had  familiarized  the  people  with  the 
principles  of  liberty  and  popular  govern- 
ment. While  not  elected  bv  popular  suf- 
frage, this  body  undoubtedly  renresented 
the  will  of  the  more  enlightened  and  pro- 
gressive inhabitants  of  the  country,  espe- 
ciallv  in  the  great  centers  of  population, 
Tabriz,  Teheran,  and  Ispahan. 

RI-SULTS   OF    THE    TARUAMKNT 

Taking  into  account  the  extraordinary 
circumstances  that  made  the  first  na- 
tional assembly  a  possibility,  and  the 
apathy  of  by  far  the  greater  number  of 


tiie  Shah's  subjects  where  their  personal 
liberties  are  concerned,  the  work  accom- 
plished by  the  Persian  Parliament  after 
a  httie  mure  than  a  year  of  existence  is 
noteworthy  and  promising.  As  in  pa>t 
years,  the  financial  condition  of  the  king- 
dom leaves  much  to  be  desired. 

The  Shah's  entourage  have  succeeded 
in  shifting  to  the  shoulders  of  the 
people's  representatives  the  constantly 
recurring  question  of  how  to  raise  rev- 
enue with  every  natural  resource  long: 
since  hypothecated  in  favor  of  foreign 
creditors.  It  must  be  remembered,  how- 
ever, that  Persia's  unfortunate  financial 
situation  is  largely  the  result  of  the  fol- 
lies and  extravagances  of  a  previous 
regime,  and  the  present  misfortunes  that 
threaten  the  credit  of  the  country  have 
their  root  in  reckless  borrowing  and  im- 
providence, lasting  over  a  period  of 
twenty  years  or  more. 

Hopeful  signs  of  internal  improve- 
ment are  noticeable  all  over  Persia,  espe- 
cially in  the  northern  provinces,  where 
the  towns  and  villages  have  taken  steps 
to  form  local  municipal  assemblies  mod- 
eled on  European  lines.  Attempts  are 
being  made  in  many  provinces  to  inaug- 
urate a  fair  system  of  taxation,  and  the 
people  are  beginning  to  realize  that  the 
passing  of  the  iniquitous  system  of  tax 
"farming"  means  the  beginning  of  a  new 
era  of  prosperity  for  the  poor  as  well  as 
the  rich. 

Among  other  signs  of  the  awakening 
interest  of  Persian  people  in  the  affairs 
of  their  country  is  the  sudden  and  re- 
markable prowth  of  the  Persian  pivss. 
In  place  of  the  old  "Monitenr  Official." 
Teheran  can  now  boast  of  no  less  than 
four  daily  and  thirty  weekly  papers. 
Most  of  these  are  rabidly  progressive  in 
their  tone,  nor  can  their  influence  be  said 
to  be  wholly  beneficial  to  the  cause  they 
support.  Nevertheless  it  is  a  promising 
sign  that  the  absolute  apathy  toward 
public  affair^  which  was  a  characteristic 
trait  only  a  few  years  a<ro  is  giving  place 
to  a  new  sense  of  social  responsibility. 


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PERSIA:    THE  AWAKENING  EAST  381 


Photo  and  Copyright  by  Underwood  &  Underwood,  New  York 
AN    ARISTOCRATIC    YOUNG   PERSIAN    LADY 


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OUTLINE    MAP    OF    PERSIA 

CONSERVATION   OF  OUR   NATURAL 
RESOURCES 

PRESIDENT  ROOSEVELT  has  in- 
vited the  President  of  the  National 
Geographic  Society,  Dr  Willis  L.  Moore, 
as  its  representative,  to  take  part  in  the 
conference  to  be  held  at  the  White 
Plouse  in  May  for  the  Conservation  of 
our  Natural  Resources. 

THE  WHITE  HOUSE, 
WASHINGTON,  March;  14,  1908. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  :  Recently  I  invited  the  gover- 
nors of  the  states  and  territories  to  meet  in 
the  White  House  on  May  13-15  next  in  a  con- 
ference on  the  Conservation  of  Natural  Re- 
sources. In  issuing  the  invitation  I  expressed 
the  opinion  that  there  is  urgent  need  of  taking 
stock  of  our  resources,  and  I  added  my  belief 
that  the  conference  ought  to  take  rank  among 
the  more  important  meetings  in  the  history  of 
the  country. 

The  replies  to  the  invitation  have  been  most 
gratifying.  They  indicate  that  practically  all 
the  governors,  each  with  three  special  advis- 
ers, will  attend  the  conference.  The  Senators 
and  Representatives  of  the  Sixtieth  Congress, 
the  Justices  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  the 
members  cf  the  Cabinet  have  also  been  invited 
to  take  part ;  and  the  Inland  Waterways  Com- 
mission, which  suggested  the  conference,  will 
be  present  to  reply  to  inquiries  and  make 
record  Of  the  proceeding?.  A  limited  number 
of  leading  associations  of  national  scope,  con- 
cerned with  our  natural  resources,  will  be  in- 


vited to  send  one  repre^enta- 
tive  each  to  take  part  in  the 
discussions.  The  general  pur- 
pose of  the  conference  is  in- 
dicated on  pages  24-26  of  the 
preliminary  report  of  the 
Waterways  Commission. 

I  invite  the  cooperation  of 
the  National  Geographic  So- 
ciety in  bringing  this  matter 
before  the  people ;  and  it 
gives  me  added  pleasure  to 
invite  you  as  President  of  the 
Society,  to  take  part  in  the 
conference. 

Sincerely  yours, 

THEODORE  ROOSEVELT. 

President  WILLIS  L.  MOORE, 
National  Geographic  Society, 
Washington,  D.  C. 

Every  student  of  geog- 
raphy keenly  appreciates 
the  importance  of  the 
conference  called  by  the 
President,  and  hopes  for 
lasting  results  from  the 
meeting.  The  National  Geographic  So- 
ciety for  many  years  through  its  Maga- 
zine has  endeavored  to  stimulate  interest 
in  the  great  natural'  factors  and  prob- 
lems of  this  country.  It  is  always  glad 
to  cooperate  in  any  movement  to  con- 
serve our  animal,  vegetable,  and  mineral 
wealth  for  future  generations. 

THE   NOME   GOLD   FIELDS 

IN  Bulletin  No.  328,  just  issued  by  the 
United  States  Geological  Survey, 
Mr  Alfred  H.  Brooks,  in  charge  of  the 
division  of  Alaskan  mineral  resources, 
describes  the  rapid  industrial  changes  in 
Seward  Peninsula,  Alaska : 

"A  decade  ago  Seward  Peninsula  was 
little  more  than  a  barren  waste,  unpeo- 
pled except  for  a  few  hundred  Eskimos 
and  a  score  of  white  men ;  now  it  is  the 
scene  of  intense  commercial  activity, 
supporting  a  permanent  population  of 
3,000  or  4,000  people,  which  in  sum- 
mer is  more  than  doubled.  Then  the 
igloo  of  the  Eskimos  and  a  mission  were 
the  only  permanent  habitations ;  now  a 
well-built  town  with  all  the  adjuncts  of 
civilization  looks  out  on  Bering  Sea,  and 
a  dozen  smaller  settlements  are  scattered 
through  the  peninsula.  This  region, 


THE  NOME  GOLD  FIELDS 


385 


which  then  produced  only  a  few  furs, 
now  increases  the  wealth  of  the  world 
annually  by  nearly  $8,000,000.  A  decade 
ago  the  only  communication  with  the 
civilized  world  was  through  the  annual 
visit  of  the  Arctic  whaling  fleet  and  the 
revenue  cutter;  now  a  score  of  ocean 
liners  ply  between  Nome  and  Puget 
Sound  during  the  summer  months,  and 
even  in  winter  a  weekly  mail  service  is 
maintained  by  dog  teams.  Moreover, 
military  telegraph  lines,  cables,  and  wire- 
less systems,  and  a  private  telephone 
system  keep  all  parts  of  the  peninsula  in 
close  touch  with  the  outer  world.  Rail- 
ways connecting  some  of  the  inland  min- 
ing centers  with  tide-water  traverse  re- 
gions which  a  few  years  ago  were  almost 
unknown  to  white  men.  This  industrial 
improvement  is  the  result  of  the  discov- 
ery and  exploitation  of  gold  deposits." 

As  there  has  been  but  one  successful 
attempt  at  auriferous  lode  mining  in  this 
region,  practically  all  the  gold  produc- 
tion— approximately  $37,000,000  in  the 
nine  years  from  1898  to  1907 — has  been 
taken  from  the  placers,  and  it  is  the  geo- 
logic and  industrial  history  of  these 
placers  which  is  discussed  in  this  report. 

Compared  with  the  output  of  the  Cali- 
fornia placers,  which  are  estimated  to 
have  yielded  in  two  years  (1851  to  1853) 
$62,000,000,  and  of  the  Klondike  placers, 
whose  output  in  the  first  decade  is  valued 
at  $118,000,000,  the  production  of  the 
Seward  Peninsula  placer  mines  is  small. 
A  rough  outline  map  in  Mr  Brooks's  re- 
port illustrates  approximately  the  rela- 
tive size  of  the  gold-bearing  areas  of  the 
three  regions  and  his  comparison  is  most 
interesting: 

"The  auriferous  gravels  of  California 
*  *  *  probably  cover  an  area  about 
equal  to  that  occupied  by  the  auriferous 
gravels  of  Seward  Peninsula,  but  the 
Klondike  gold  field  is  probably  less  than 
one-tenth  as  large.  The  California 
placers  are  not  only  ideally  located  for 
economic  exploitation,  but  their  gold 
content  averaged  no  less  than  that  of  the 
Seward  Peninsula  gravels.  Moreover, 
the  high  gravels  of  California  are  far 
more  extensive  than  those  of  the  Alaska 


field.  With  abundant  water  supply, 
steep  stream  gradients,  heavy  gravel  de- 
posits, accessibility,  and  salubrious  cli- 
mate, it  is  no  wonder  that  the  California 
placers  far  outstripped  the  northern  field 
in  the  first  years  of  production. 

"The  Klondike,  on  the  other  hand,  is 
less  favorably  situated  than  Seward  Pe- 
ninsula, and  its  water  supply  available 
for  mining  is  much  less.  It  appears, 
however,  that  the  placers  of  such  creeks 
as  Eldorado  and  Bonanza,  in  the  Klon- 
dike, averaged  richer  than  any  deposits 
of  similar  extent  yet  found  in  the  penin- 
sula. It  was  the  exploitation  of  these 
almost  fabulously  rich  and  relatively 
shallow  gravels  that  brought  the  Klon- 
dike gold  output  up  with  a  bound,  and  it 
is  their  quick  exhaustion  that  has  caused 
an  almost  equally  rapid  decline  of  the 
annual  yield.  There  are  still  extensive 
bodies  of  lower-grade  gravels  to  mine  in 
the  Klondike,  but  these  can  be  developed 
only  by  means  of  extensive  water  con- 
duits or  by  dredging.  Mining  in  the 
Klondike  has  passed  its  zenith,  whereas 
in  Seward  Peninsula  the  maximum 
yearly  output  is  still  to  be  reached. 

"In  the  comparison  of  the  Seward  Pe- 
ninsula placer  fields  with  others,  it  must 
be  borne  in  mind  that  probably  three- 
fourths  of  the  entire  production  has  been 
drawn  from  the  region  adjacent  to 
Nome  and  from  Ophir  Creek  and  its 
tributaries.  Therefore,  though  the  gold- 
bearing  area  is  large,  yet  only  a  few 
square  miles  have  been  extensively  ex- 
ploited *  *  *  and  it  is  probable 
that  it  will  be  some  time  before  the  max- 
imum yield  will  be  attained." 

The  report  from  which  the  above  ex- 
tracts are  made  contains,  in  addition  to 
papers  by  Mr  Brooks,  papers  by  Messrs 
A.  T.  Collier,  F.  L.  Hess,  and  P.  ! 
Smith.  It  includes  several  maps  and 
other  illustrations. 

GEOGRAPHICAL  CONGRESS 

THE    Geographical    Society    of    Ge- 
neva  has    sent   to   the    National 
Geographic  Society  a  limited  number  of 
preliminary  programs  in  French  of  the 


Photo  by  E.  D.  Follwell,  Korea 

"MERRY  WIDOW"  HATS  six  FEET  IN  CIRCUMFERENCE 

Worn  by  the  well-to-do  young  of  all  classes  and  by  middle-aged  women  of  the  higher 

class  in  Korea 


Ninth  International  Geographic  Con- 
gress, which  will  be  held  in  Geneva, 
Switzerland,  July  27  to  August  6.  Mem- 
bers of  the  National  Geographic  Society 
who  are  expecting  to  be  in  Europe  the 
coming  summer,  and  who  would  like  to 
attend  the  Congress,  will  be  furnished 
with  copies  of  this  program  upon  re- 
quest. The  delegates  of  the  National 
Geographic  Society  to  the  Congress  are 
Rear  Admiral  Colby  M.  Chester,  U.  S. 
N. ;  Prof.  James  Howard  Gore,  of 
George  Washington  University,  both  of 
whom  are  members  of  the  Board  of 
Managers ;  Prof.  Simon  Newcomb,  and 
Dr  Anita  Newcomb  McGee. 

NEW  TOPOGRAPHIC  MAPS. 

During  January  and  February,  1908,  the 
United  States  Geological  Survey  issued  new 
topographic  maps  as  follows  :  > 

State.  Quadrangle. 

Illinois   Breese 

Kentucky Morganfield 

Minnesota  Minnetonka 

Ohio    Ravenna 

Ohio-West  Virginia Pomeroy 

Pennsylvania Johnstown 

Texas El  Paso 

Virginia Natural  Bridge  Special 


West  Virginia   Kcnna 

Do Keno 

Do Otter 

Do Walton 

With  the  exception  of  the  Minnetonka 
(Minn.),  Natural  Bridge  Special  (Va.),  and 
El  Paso  (Tex.)  sheets,  these  maps  represent 
cooperative  surveys  made  by  the  State  and 
Federal  governments. 

Reprints  were  also  issued  of  the  following 
sheets,  the  first  editions  of  which  had  been  ex- 
hausted: 

State.  Quadrangle. 

Arizona  Kaibab 

California   Sierraville 

District   of   Columbia Washington 

Florida    Williston 

Illinois Dunlap 

Do Ottawa 

Maryland   Betterton 

Mass.-N.   H Newburyporti 

Missouri    MarshaJP^ 

New    Jersey-Delaware Bayside 

New   York-Connecticut Oyster   Bay 

North  Carolina Statesville 

Pennsylvania     Millerstown 

Tennessee Louden 

Do Morristown 

Virginia  Roanoke 

The  maps  listed  above  are  fcr  sale  by  the 
Survey  at  5  cents  each  except  the  Washington 
sheet,  which,  being  double  the  size  of  the 
others,  costs  10  cents. 


VOL.  XIX,  No.  6 


WASHINGTON 


JUNE,  1908 


ONE   SEASON'S   GAME-BAG  WITH    THE 

CAMERA" 

BY  HON.  GEORGE  SHIRAS,  ^RD 

Mr  Shiras'  achievements  with  the  camera  and  the  flashlight  have  encouraged 
many  big-game  hunters  and  Held  naturalists  to  adopt  these  methods  of  pursuing 
or  studying  wild  life.  When  serving  as  a  member  of  Congress  Mr  Shiras  devoted 
much  time  to  preparing  or  advocating  measures  designed  to  permanently  conserve 
the  birds,  animals,  and  fish  of  our  country.  One  bill  putting  under  Federal  con- 
trol the  migratory  wild  fowl  and  another  extending  governmental  supervision 
over  fish  in  the  tidal  waters,  the  Great  Lakes,  and  interstate  rivers,  have  received 
the  hearty  approval  of  the  leading  game  and  fish  protective  associations  in  the 
United  States  and  Canada,  while  the  author's  extensive  brief  in  support  of  such 
constitutional  power  has  met  with  the  approbation  of  many  leading  jurists  and 
lawyers.  Within  the  next  year  active  steps  will  be  taken  to  have  these  bills 
enacted  into  law. — EDITOR 


A     BOUT  two  years  ago  the  writer 
L\        contributed    an    article    to     the 
jL   \      NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGA- 
ZINE; upon  "Photographing  Wild  Game 
vith  Camera  and  Flashlight, "f  the  pur- 
pose of  which  was  to  show  what  an  ad- 
nirable  substitute  the  camera  is  for  the 
un   in  the   skillful  pursuit  of   wild   life 
and  in  the  capture  of  trophies  much  more 
mduring  and  attractive  to  the  hunter,  his 
riends,    or   the    public,   than    where   the 
inimal  or  bird  paid  the  forfeit  of  its  life 
n  the  game  of  hide  and  seek. 

The  old  doctrine  of  the  frontiersman, 
rapper,  explorer,  or  remote  home- 
iteader,  that  the  edibility  of  certain  wild 
:reatures  justified  their  destruction,  was 
md  is  still  a  rational  one,  when  we  con- 
ider  how  human  life  has  been  sustained 

*  Copyright,  1908,  by  George  Shiras,  3rd. 


or  the  otherwise  limited  larder  of  those 
in  the  wilderness  bountifully  varied  by 
the  moderate  taking  of  game  animals 
and  birds.  To  a  considerably  less  degree 
we  may  ascribe  some  reason  to  the 
thrifty  market  hunter  who  turns  his 
ducks  into  dollars  or  moose  meat  into 
money,  since  he  seldom  kills  or  abandons 
a  mountain  of  flesh  for  the  sake  of  a  pair 
of  antlers  or  for  the  temporary  gratifica- 
tion of  an  accurately  placed  bullet  in  ah 
animal  so  tough  or  so  remote  from  civili- 
zation that  its  flesh  cannot  be  utilized. 

But  how  about  the  modern  sportsman 
who  hunts  for  the  love  of  sport  and  the 
freedom  that  comes  with  a  trip  into  the 
wilderness?  Are  the  antlers  of  an  aban- 
doned and  festering  stag  to  be  recog- 
nized as  a  trophy  of  unsullied  honor. 

fWith  72  illustrations,  July,  1906. 


388 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


while  the  blood-flecked  coin  of  the  mar- 
ket hunter  is  to  be  regarded  as  the  token 
of  sordidness? 

When  fagged,  overcivilized,  not  to  say 
overfed,  man  seeks  the  solitude  of  the 
forest,  he  goes  neither  in  search  of  food 
nor  from  a  barbaric  desire  to  see  gaping 
wounds  and  a  pitiful  death  struggle  of 
some  mighty  beast.  The  exhilaration 
and  the  delightful  freedom  of  the  wilder- 
ness, with  an  opportunity  to  pit  man's 
dexterity  and  resourcefulness  against  the 
experience,  strategy,  and  inherent  cun- 
ning of  the  hunted,  accounts  in  these 
later  days  for  many  an  unnecessary 
tragedy  in  the  woods. 

A  tithe  of  what  one  spends  in  time  and 
travel  will  supply  the  household  with 
flesh  or  fowl  that  is  generally  superior 
to  the  game  sought,  or  one  can  buy  at 
half  the  cost  the  skins  or  horns  that  later 
may  adorn  the  home  as  a  result  of  the 
hunting  trip. 

Every  decent  sportsman  who  now 
hunts  big  game  in  particular,  and  many 
of  those  who  seek  a  smaller  quarry,  are 
moved  by  qualities  directly  opposed  to 
needless  suffering  or  useless  slaughter ; 
and  it  .is  unfortunate  that  to  many  of 
these  the  peep-sights  of  a  rifle  must  con- 
tinue to  circumscribe  their  vision.  Some 
time  it  will  be  recognized  that,  when  the 
camp  is  abundantly  supplied  with  wild 
food,  the  camera,  and  the  camera  alone, 
should  be  the  means  of  further  hunting; 
for  skill,  not  kill,  is  the  motive,  except  in 
the  predaceous  class,  like  the  wolf,  the 
cougar,  or  the  crow. 

THE    CAMERA    DISPLACING     THE      SPORTS- 
MAN'S  GUN 

From  his  accurate  knowledge  of  wild 
life  and  under  the  prestige  and  authority 
of  his  high  office,  President  Roosevelt 
has  done  more  to  permanently  conserve 
the  wild  animals  and  birds  of  this  coun- 
try than  any  man  now  living.  The  set- 
ting aside,  under  executive  order,  of  a 
great  many  game  refuges  and  dozens  of 
islands  as  breeding  places  for  wild  fowl 
and  sea  birds — on  the  coasts,  on  the 
Great  Lakes,  and  in  the  distant  waters  of 
Hawaii — has  led  to  remarkable  results 
and  will  save  many  a  rare  creature  now 
verging  on  extinction.  Originally  an 


intrepid  pioneer,  who  only  collected  a 
fair  toll  in  a  fair  way  from  the  hills  and 
plains  near  his  western  ranch,  he  has  not 
in  the  past  14  years  killed  a  single  harm- 
less wild  animal,  confining  his  brief  trips 
to  a  study  of  the  fauna  of  the  Yellow- 
stone Park,  or  to  participating  in  lively 
chases  after  the  wolf,  the  bear,  the  lynx, 
or  the  cougar,  whose  destructiveness  have 
put  them  in  the  "predatory"  class  of 
whfch  we  have  heard  so  much  of  late. 

The  President  many  years  ago  wrote 
the  following  as  an  introductory  to  a  book 
of  wild  life  illustrated  with  the  camera: 

"I  desire  to  express  my  sense  of  the 
good  which  comes  from  such  books,  and 
from  the  substitution  of  the  camera  for 
the  gun.  The  older  I  grow,  the  less  I 
care  to  shoot  anything  but  'varmints.' 
*  *  *  If  we  can  only  get  the  camera 
in  place  of  the  gun  and  have  sportsman 
sunk  somewhat  in  the  naturalist  and  the 
lover  of  wild  things,  the  next  generation 
will  see  an  immense  change  for  the  bet- 
ter in  the  life  of  our  woods  and  waters." 

And  this  is  the  man,  who  for  many 
years  has  killed  no  innocent  thing,  and 
who,  sportsman  originally  as  he  was,  has 
become  the  leader  in  the  preservation  of 
wild  life  and  in  the  advocacy  of  those 
means  for  best  studying  and  enjoying  it, 
that  has  been  pointed  out  as  one  not  now 
in  "sympathy"  with  present  nature  fak- 
ers or  their  well-meaning  but  deluded 
followers ! 

It  is  only  in  recent  years  that  the  quick 
plate,  rapid  shutter  and  lens  have  made 
possible  successful  hunting  with  the 
camera,  and  even  then  it  has  required 
time  to  show  the  extensive  field,  the  fas- 
cinating character  of  the  pastime,  and 
the  sentimental  and  practical  features 
involved  in  this  method  of  studying  and 
picturing  wild  life. 

Although    the    writer    was    an    ardent 
hunter  from  early  youth,  and  pursued  in 
the  most   relentless   way  those  yarieti< 
of  birds  and  animals  whose  cunning  and 
whose   conquest   made   them   worthy  of 
the  name  of  "game,"  it  must  not  be  as- 
sumed that  he,  with  the  usual  zeal  of  ; 
convert,  now  indiscriminately  decries 
man   with   the   gun;    for,    under   proper 
conditions  and  in  moderation  the  tenan 
in  the  wilderness  camp  is  entitled  to  his 


ONE  SEASON'S  GAME-BAG  WITH  CAMERA         389 


share  of  nature's  bounty;  nor  is  the 
writer  in  accord  with  the  paved-street 
nature  lovers  who  would  sanctify  as 
God's  creatures  the  wild  deer  and  the 
wild  sheep,  and  yet  see  no  inconsistency 
when  entering  an  indignant  protest  if, 
forsooth,  a  joint  of  lamb  is  tough,  simply 
because  the  little  creature's  gambols  in 
the  spring  were  too  prolonged ! 

In  the  previous  article,  already  re- 
ferred to,  the  writer  used,  so  far  as  pos- 
sible, illustrations  intended  to  show  the 
wide  scope  of  camera  hunting,  ranging 
from  the  gigantic  bull  moose  to  the  bull- 
frog; the  graceful  deer  to  the  tiny  deer 
mouse ;  the  sleeping  bird  upon  the  nest  to 
the  rapid  flight  of  wild  fowl  speeding 
seventy-five  miles  an  hour  before  the 
blind.  Then,  too,  it  was  shown  that  all 
is  game  to  the  camera,  irrespective  of 
edibility;  that  you  can  still  hunt  your 
game — shoot  it  on  the  wing;  set  your 
camera  out  like  traps ;  hunt  any  season  of 
the  year,  in  daylight  or  in  darkness ;  have 
admission  to  lands  closed  to  the  man  with 
the  gun,  and  never  be  limited  by  law  or 
custom  in  the  size  of  your  game-bag. 

The  fact  that  the  taking  of  these  pic- 
tures covered  a  period  of  more  than 
twenty  years  has  led  the  writer  to  pre- 
pare the  present  article.  Many  previous 
readers  reached  the  conclusion  that  wild 
game  photography  was  so  difficult  and 
uncertain  that  while  it  was  possible  for 
a  few  persons  devoting  half  a  lifetime  to 
such  a  pastime  to  gather  together  an  in- 
teresting collection  of  pictures,  yet  to  the 
ordinary  sportsman  or  amateur  photog- 
rapher the  prospects  of  getting  satisfac- 
tory results  in  the  vacation  periods  of 
each  year  were  too  remote  for  their  con- 
sideration. 

Therefore  the  present  illustrations  are 
selected  from  among  two  hundred  and 
fifty  photographs  taken  within  the  past 
year,  or,  to  be  more  precise,  from  April 
9,  1907,  to  April  i,  1908,  and  represent 
four  trips  in  which  the  camera  was  in 
use  a  total  of  thirty  days,  aside  from  the 
time  of  reaching  the  game  fields. 

WHERE      THE      AUTHOR      "HUNTED"      THE 
PAST  YEAR 

Having  had  a  permanent  or  base  camp 
every  year  since  a  boy  on  the  south  shore 


of  Lake  Superior,  much  of  my  big-game 
hunting  with  the  rifle  or  camera  has  been 
in  the  middle  West  or  central  Canada ;. 
but  in  the  present  instance,  with  few  ex- 
ceptions, the  photographs  represent  two- 
extremes  on  the  Atlantic  coast.  One  trip, 
in  April  of  last  year,  was  to  an  isolated 
coral  reef,  called  Cay  Verde,  belonging 
to  the  Bahama  group  and  situate  about 
230  miles  south  of  Nassau,  where  we  lo- 
cated the  only  large,  and  possibly  the 
only  existing,  breeding  colonies  in  east- 
ern waters  of  the  man-o'-war  birds  and 
boobies ;  another  expedition,  in  July,  was 
made  to  New  Brunswick  after  moose 
and  deer,  while  later  in  the  season  the 
Gulf  of  Saint  Lawrence  was  revisited  and 
crossed  to  the  Island  of  Newfoundland 
to  picture  the  fall  migration  of  the  cari- 
bou; and  the  fourth  and  final  trip  was 
made  this  spring,  to  Florida  waters,  for 
a  further  study  of  the  brown  pelicans, 
and  other  local  birds.  As  will  be  noted, 
no  distinction  was  made  between  game 
and  non-game  animals  and  birds  in  these 
recent  expeditions. 

AN     EXCITING     VOYAGE     IN     WEST     INDIA 
WATERS 

In  company  with  Mr  Frank  M.  Chap- 
man, the  well-known  ornithologist,  the 
voyage  to  Cay  Verde  was  made  from 
Miami  in  the  trim  little  schooner  yacht 
Physalia,  of  the  Carnegie  Institution  of 
Washington,  and  under  the  command  of 
that  experienced  navigator  and  naturalist 
Dr.  A.  G.  Mayer,  director  of  the  Dry 
Tortugas  Laboratory.  At  first  sight  the 
Physalia  seemed  small  and  low  in  the 
water  for  a  thousand-mile  trip  in  the  Ba- 
hamas. It  was  fifty-five  feet  over  all, 
with  a  graceful  and  extended  overhang 
in  the  bow  and  stern  that  reduced  the 
keel  measurement  to  only  twenty-five 
feet.  The  draft  was  five  feet  and  the 
main  deck  about  three  feet  above  the 
water  line.  The  masts,  however,  were 
long  and  very  massive ;  but,  alas,  several 
days  later  these  selfsame  masts  became 
an  additional  source  of  danger,  as  the 
little  yacht,  lying  on  her  beam's  ends  in 
a  fearful  gale,  was  endeavoring  to  re- 
cover her  equilibrium.  In  addition  to  the 
sails,  there  was  a  twenty  horse-pnwer 
gasoline  engine  for  use  in  making  diffi- 


39° 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


cult  harbor  entrances  or  fighting  against 
the  treacherous  tides  of  the  Bahama 
Banks. 

The  voyage  across  the  Gulf  Stream  to 
Nassau  and  the  first  day's  run  south  from 
that  port  was  interesting  but  uneventful. 
On  the  second  day,  April  i,  1907,  con- 
ditions changed,  when  a  heavy  head  wind 
was  encountered  from  the  south,  dis- 
placing the  customary  easterly  trade 
winds.  For  hours  the  yacht  tacked  back 
and  forth  in  a  futile  contest  with  wind 
and  waves,  for  going  to  windward  was 
not  the  Physalia's  strong  point.  At  4  p.  m. 
the  anchor  was  dropped  on  the  north 
side  of  a  narrow  reef  lying  east  and  west, 
which  promised  fair  shelter  for  the  ap- 
proaching night ;  but  at  this  very  moment 
the  destructive  hurricane  of  April  I  had 
just  struck  Nassau,  fifty  miles  to  the 
north,  and  was  tearing  its  way  against 
the  southern  gale,  which  we  were  con- 
tentedly watching  as  it  sent  the  spray 
high  over  the  reef  in  front  of  us. 

The  barometer,  however,  had  begun  to 
fall  and,  not  liking  the  looks  of  the 
weather,  with  ominous  thunder  clouds 
gathering,  another  anchor  was  dropped 
overboard,  only  to  find  ourselves  strug- 
gling at  the  windlass  half  an  hour  later 
to  pull  them  back  again,  as  the  hurricane 
came  from  the  north  while  the  tumul- 
tuous waves  threatened  to  pull  the  bow 
under,  held  as  it  was  with  double  chains, 
or  later  drive  us  back  upon  the  reef  when 
anchor  free. 

As  the  second  anchor  came  aboard,  the 
yacht  responded  quickly  to  the  wind,  and 
in  passing  out  struck  a  sunken  bar  of 
sand  or  silt,  hanging  just  long  enough  for 
a  huge  wave  to  sweep  the  decks  and  flood 
the  engine-room,  stopping  the  motor, 
upon  which  we  were  relying  until  a  small 
sail  could  be  reefed.  The  next  wave 
carried  us  clear,  and  in  a  few  minutes 
the  engine  was  again  running,  and  then 
began  a  struggle  to  clear  som^  long,  low 
islands  ahead  which  could  be  v  imly  seen 
in  the  gathering  darkness.  This  required 
us  to  run  at  right  angles  to  the  gale,  in 
the  trough  of  the  sea,  and  then  it  was  that 
the  huge  masts  laid  us  over  again  and 
again,  tearing  the  life-boats  from  the 
davits  and  upsetting  things  generally. 


Darkness  now  came  on,  accentuated  by 
flashes  of  lightning,  and  after  a  run  of 
half  an  hour  it  was  hoped  we  had 
cleared  the  islands  to  the  left;  so,  to  the 
partial  relief  of  all,  the  rapidly  founder- 
ing yacht  was  turned  free  with  the  wind, 
and  then  commenced  an  all-night's  run 
through  a  network  of  coral  reefs  and 
shallow  bars  which  for  six  hundred  miles 
formed  the  easterly  fringe  of  the  Ba- 
hama Banks.  The  night  being  impen- 
etrable, no  lookout  was  placed  at  the  bow, 
but  every  minute  or  two  the  lead  was 
thrown,  and  when  occasionally  the  Swede 
mate  called  out  "Vun  f addom,"  we  knew 
that  but  a  single  foot  of  water  lay  be- 
tween the  keel  and  some  jagged  reef. 
But  here  I  shall  omit  the  suspense  of  the 
next  four  hours. 

At  midnight  the  gasoline  tank  broke 
and  the  little  cabin  was  flooded  with  gal- 
lons of  volatile  oil.  With  a  rush  all  the 
lamps  were  extinguished,  including  the 
binnacle  light,  illuminating  the  deck  com- 
pass, and  just  in  time  to  prevent  sudden 
annihilation.  The  possession  of  a  little 
electric  pocket-lamp  made  it  possible  to 
see  the  wheelman's  compass  until,  after 
an  hour's  effort,  with  a  barricade  of 
canned  goods  carried  from  the  hold  to 
the  deck,  we  succeeded,  in  the  howling 
gale,  in  lighting  a  marine  lantern. 

At  4 130  a.  m.,  in  the  first  gleam  of  the 
coming  light,  the  pilot  made  out  a  high 
and  rocky  island  a  quarter  of  a  mile  to 
the  east,  and  in  a  few  minutes  he  skill- 
fully guided  us  into  a  narrow  entrance  of 
Upper  Gold  Ring  Key,  ninety-one  miles 
away  from  the  anchorage  of  the  night 
before.  Here,  in  a  spirit  of  thankfulness, 
we  remained  for  two  days,  until  the  gale 
passed  away,  repairing  the  broken  life- 
boats and  pumping  out  the  gasoline  from 
the  bilge,  during  which  time  we  cooked 
our  meals  on  the  shore  of  the  key,  for 
the  yacht  was  still  filled  with  the  sicken- 
ing and  dangerous  fumes  of  gasoline. 
And  how  bright  and  lovely  those  scarred 
rocks  and  tangled  thickets  seemed !  On 
board  everything  was  thoroughly 
drenched  except  our  precious  plates, 
which  fortunately  had  been  put  up  in 
water-tight  tin  cans. 


ONE  SEASON'S  GAME-BAG  WITH  CAMERA 


39 


WRECKERS  EYEING  THE  PHYSAUA   WITH    INTEREST 


It  may  be  remarked  that  this  was  the 
first  hurricane  at  such  an  early  date  for 
nearly  twenty  years,  and,  with  a  wind 
pressure  of  more  than  eighty  miles  an 
hour,  it  beached,  sunk,  or  dismantled  a 
large  number  of  vessels  at  Nassau  and  in 
our  vicinity. 


But  let  no  inexperienced  one  suppose 
that  this  unusual  adventure  of  the  P/i\- 
salia  is  typical  of  life  on  the  sea,  or  that 
he  who  seeks  the  remote  forests  or  the 
open  waters  is  leading  a  life  of  danger 
and  of  hardship,  for  the  dangers  of  the 
crowded  city  far  exceed  in  number  and 
variety  those  of  the  former.  "The  perils 


THE   PHYSALIA   OX    A  RI-KF    (SKK    I'At'.K   402) 


CURLY   TAILED    LIZARD,    CAY    VERDE 

RESTING   AFTER   THE    HURRICANE    ON    UPPER    GOLD    RING    KEY:    AN    ABANDONED 

NEGRO    HUT 


ONE  SEASON'S  GAME-BAG  WITH  CAMERA 


393 


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ONE  SEASON'S  GAME-BAG  WITH  CAM 


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395 


396 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


f 


PARENT    BOOBIES    COVERING    YOUNG    FROM    DIRECT    SUN    HEAT    OF    130    DEGREES 
NESTING    BOOBY  :    WITH    YOUNG    DISPLACED    IN    FOREGROUND 


• 


OXLY    YOUNG    TWIN    BOOBIES    NOTICED    IN    JOO    NKSTS 

THE  PARENT  BOOBIES  STAND  GUARD  ON  EITHER  SIDE  NIGHT  AND  DAY,  EXCEPT   \V  II  EN- 
SEARCH  ING  FOR  FOOD 


398          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


BOOBIES  IN  FLIGHT  :  NOTE  FAN-TAILS 
YOUNG  BOOBY   IN   FINAL  GRAY   PLUMAGE  JUST  BEFORE}   CHANGING   TO   ADULT 


ONE  SEASON'S  GAME-BAG  WITH  CAMERA         399 


MAN-O  -WAR    BIRDS    SOARING    IOO    YARDS    OVERHEAD    ON    MOTIONLESS    WINGS 


of  the  deep"  is  a  most  misleading  phrase. 
It  is  the  peril  of  the  shallows,  of  the 
reefs,  of  the  fog-bedimmed  coast,  that 
makes  navigation  sometimes  dangerous 
and  uncertain.  Not  too  much  wind,  how- 
ever great,  but  too  little  water,  is  the 
cause  of  nearly  every  disaster  upon  the 
sea. 

The  loss  of  all  the  gasoline  except  a 
few  gallons  remaining  in  the  bottom  of 
the  ruptured  tank  delayed  the  expedition 
many  days,  and  instead  of  a  return  to 
Nassau  within  a  week,  nearly  a  month 
elapsed  before  the  trip  was  over. 

The  following  week,  a  hundred  miles 
farther  south,  we  spent  several  days  at 
Ragged  Island  awaiting  favorable  con- 
ditions for  visiting  Cay  Verde,  more  than 
thirty  miles  out  of  sight  of  land  to  the 
east  and  upon  which  a  landing  could  only 


be  made  when  a  light  wind  prevailed,  for 
calm  days  were  now  unavailable,  with 
the  gasoline  practically  gone,  and  heavy 
winds  meant  insurmountable  breakers 
rolling  in  upon  the  small  sand  beach  at 
Cay  Verde. 

Finally,  on  April  8,  with  a  light  head 
wind,  the  Physalia  slowly  tacked  its  way 
toward  our  goal,  and  late  in  the  after- 
noon, when  within  three  miles  of  this 
little  island,  the  wind  died  out  and  it  be- 
came necessary  to  use  several  gallons  of 
the  remaining  gasoline  in  order  to  make 
a  landing  before  dark ;  and  a  fortunate 
move  it  was,  for  the  next  day  a  heavy 
wind  prevailed  and  would  have  prevented 
landing  upon  or  departure  from  the  reef. 

But  miles  away  and  long  before  the 
boats  were  launched  and  loaded  we  had 
been  anxiously  eying  the  reef  for  signs 


4-OO          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


BREEDING   COLONY   OF    MAN-o'-WAR    BIRDS 

Old  black  bird  on  nest  and  young  white  birds  scattered  through  thicket.     The  nests  are  built 
on  sea-grape  bushes  surrounded  by  impenetrable  cactus 


of  bird  life.  Our  data  was  not  at  all  en- 
couraging, since  such  as  we  had  only 
established  the  existence  of  bird  colonies 
in  1857  and  1896.  Whether  the  birds 
had  been  there  this  season  or,  if  so,  had 
been  broken  up  by  the  rather  unusual 
visit  from  some  becalmed  ship,  we  did 
not  know. 

Schooners  carrying  fifteen  or  twenty 
dories  and  a  crew  of  twenty  or  more  ne- 
groes are  continuously  searching  the 
shallow  waters  of  the  Bahamas  for 
sponges,  and,  as  might  be  expected,  have 
from  time  immemorial  made  a  practice 
of  landing  upon  islands  for  birds'  eggs 
and  their  young  and,  when  possible,  tak- 
ing the  breeding  birds  themselves,  with 
the  result  that  in  recent  years  bird  life  in 
the  Bahamas  is  threatened  with  extinc- 
tion. Some  of  the  readers  may  recall  Mr 
Chapman's  efforts,  covering  three  sea- 
sons, to  locate  on  these  islands  a  breeding 
colony  of  the  beautiful  pink  flamingo, 
and  how  at  last  he  succeeded,  after  dis- 
covering a  breeding  site  many  miles  in 


the  interior,  on  a  large  marshy  island  and 
so  remote  as  to  have  escaped  the  vigilant 
eyes  of  the  watchful  natives. 

The  extreme  isolation  of  Cay  Verde 
and  the  absence  of  protecting  land  in  the 
neighborhood  make  the  landing  too  un- 
certain to  warrant  a  trip  that  far  in 
search  of  eggs  or  young. 

However,  as  the  yacht  approached  a 
little  nearer  we  noticed  high  over  the 
island  the  graceful,  soaring  flight  of  sev- 
eral man-o'-war  birds,  and  later  could 
see,  coming  from  all  directions,  small 
numbers  of  boobies,  bringing  in  their 
pouch  the  evening  meal  for  their  clam- 
orous offspring,  provided  they  were  not 
intercepted  in  mid-air  and  compelled  to 
disgorge  for  the  benefit  of  that  hawk  of 
the  sea,  the  man-o'-war  bird,  whose  diet 
consists  wholly  of  flying  fish  or  the  toll 
collected  from  the  good-natured  boobies, 
the  presence  of  which  alone  makes  pos- 
sible a  certain  supply  of  fish  for  the 
young  of  its  piratical  neighbor. 


ONE  SEASON'S  GAME-BAG  WITH  CAMERA 


40  i 


YOUNG    MAN-O  -WAR    BIRD    AT    CLOSE    RANGE 

The  man-o'-war  or  frigate  bird  belongs  to  the  inter-tropical  seas.  They  have  a  greater 
expansion  of  wing  in  proportion  to  the  weight  of  the  body  than  any  other  bird,  and  in  power 
of  flight  are  unsurpassed,  soaring  for  hours  at  a  great  height,  often  far  out  at  sea.  They 
live  on  flying  fish  or  by  robbing  the  boobies,  gulls,  and  terns.  The  long,  narrow,  powerful 
bill  has  at  the  end  a  horny  hook,  in  appearance  and  substance  like  a  talon,  while  the  feet, 
from  lack  of  use,  are  small  and  atrophied.  The  male  is  a  brilliant  black  and  has  a  con- 
cealed pouch  of  red  skin  which,  when  inflated,  resembles  a  toy  balloon;  the  female  is  brown- 
ish black  with  a  splotched  breast  of  white.  The  single  young  is  white  with  black  wings, 
and  always  stands  erect  in  the  nest. 


402         THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


Just  as  the  tropical  sun  was  sinking, 
the  Physalia  crossed  the  crimson  sheen 
and  dropped  anchor  off  the  pretty  little 
sand  beach  mortised  in  between  black 
and  jagged  battlements  of  seolian  rock, 
which  in  broken  masses  circled  the  rest 
of  the  island.  Quickly  a  large  cask  of 
water  and  a  box  of  provisions  were  sent 
ashore  for  use,  in  case  we  were  marooned 
by  the  forced  withdrawal  of  the  yacht 
under  stress  of  weather,  and  later  disem- 
barking with  our  cameras,  we  landed  for 
a  three  days'  visit.  A  shelter  for  the 
night  was  made  from  an  old  sail  sup- 
ported by  our  tripods,  and  then  Dr 
Mayer  returned  to  the  rolling  vessel  with 
a  calm  and  satisfied  demeanor,  while  we 
secretly  rejoiced  at  having  solid  ground 
beneath  our  blankets,  hard  as  it  was. 

In  the  fading  light  Mr  Chapman  and  I 
stood  by  the  little  tent,  gazing  with  curi- 
osity and  pleasure  upon"  thousands  of 
dark-colored  boobies,  who  in  stolid 
silence  stood  upright  on  either  side  of 
their  single  white-plumaged  young,  many 
of  them  not  ten  feet  away  from  the  edge 
of  the  tent,  while  still  farther  away  we 
could  see  the  circling  man-o'-war  birds 
descending  for  the  night  to  nests  scat- 
tered throughout  a  low  thicket,  composed 
of  sea-grape  bushes  and  spiny  cactus.  At 
sunrise  we  were  up,  and  before  attempt- 
ing breakfast  made  a  hasty  trip  to  the 
higher  part  of  the  island  and  with  field- 
glasses  carefully  studied  the  birds,  map- 
ping out  our  plan  of  action. 

Our  investigation  then  and  later 
showed  the  island  to  be  about  thirty  acres 
in  extent  and  containing  more  than  4,000 
ground-nesting  boobies  and  five  or  six 
hundred  man-o'-war  birds  in  the  sea- 
grape  thicket,  each  colony  in  the  midst 
of  its  nesting  season.  The  pictures  and 
subjoined  text  will  tell  without  further 
words  just  what  the  camera  saw,  though 
the  remarkable  fact  may  be  stated  that 
while  the  booby  nests  usually  contained 
two  eggs,  we  were  unable  to  find  more 
than  one  pair  of  young  in  any  of  the 
hundreds  of  nests  examined — clue,  as 
we  discovered,  to  the  peculiar  fact  that 
there  was  a  difference  of  at  least  ten  days 
in  the  incubating  eggs,  and  that  therefore 
the  first  young  hatched  would  alone  sur- 


vive. The  man-o'-war  birds,  on  the  other 
hand,  lay  one  egg  and,  unlike  the  boobiesr 
the  nests  are  placed  far  back  in  the  almost 
impenetrable  jungle  of  cactus. 

Several  times  the  Physalia  changed  its- 
anchorage,  as  heavy  winds  came  on  and 
on  one  night  in  particular  we  were  much 
alarmed  when  in  the  midst  of  a  violent 
thunder-storm  the  lights  upon  the  Phy- 
salia disappeared,  occasioned,  as  we  dis- 
covered on  the  next  day,  by  the  violent 
rocking  of  the  vessel.  At  the  end  of  the 
third  day  our  work  was  done,  including 
the  taking  and  preparation  by  Mr  Chap- 
man of  a  splendid  group  of  both  variety 
of  birds  for  the  American  Museum  of 
Natural  History;  and  then  began  the 
slow  journey  back  to  Nassau.  Delays 
were  numerous,  but  none  were  serious 
until  the  night  of  April  16,  when  for  the 
only  time,  aside  from  the  night  of  the 
hurricane,  we  attempted  a  several  hours' 
run  with  a  fair  wind  and  a  full  moon,  in 
order  to  reach  Nassau  next  day  if  pos- 
sible, where  and  when  the  last  steamer  of 
the  season  left  for  Miami.  At  n  p.  m. 
the  yacht  suddenly  stopped,  the  masts 
shook  violently,  the  sails  flapped,  and  be- 
hold— we  were  upon  a  reef,  at  high  tide, 
a  mile  out  of  our  course,  through  the 
treacherous  currents  of  these  broken 
waters. 

At  daybreak,  when  the  tide  was  low, 
we  found  ourselves  perched  on  a  sand 
bar  in  six  inches  of  water,  with  a  deep 
channel  on  either  side.  The  wind  re- 
mained light  and  with  a  large  island  a 
mile  to  the  east  the  boat  alone  was  in 
danger  should  the  wind  increase.  Here 
we  remained  three  days,  working  like 
beavers  at  the  windlass  in  an  effort  to 
drag  the  yacht  into  deep  water,  but  not 
until  the  boat  was  stripped  of  all  her  bal- 
last, provisions,  anchors,  etc.,  did  we  suc- 
ceed in  getting  her  off,  in  high  water,  at 
midnight  of  the  third  day ;  and,  as  an  ex- 
ample of  our  former  good  luck,  it  may  be 
stated  that  the  bar  we  struck  lay  just  ten 
miles  south  of  where  we  began  the  all- 
night  run  on  the  night  of  April  ist.  The 
next  day  we  reached  Nassau,  too  late,  of 
course,  for  the  Miami  boat,  and  were 
compelled  to  return  by  water  to  New 
York  on  a  Ward  line  steamer. 


ONE  SEASON'S  GAME-BAG  WITH  CAMERA         403 


MALE    AND    FEMALE    MAN-oVAR    BIRDS    FLYING    OVER    SEA    GRAPE    THICKET:    NOTE 
WING    ACTION    AND    FORKED    TAILS 

FIVE  NESTS  OF  MAN-O'WAR  BIRDS  IN  A  RADIUS  OF  six  FEET:  THIS  BIRD  HAS  BUT 

ONE  YOUNG 


404         THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


ONE  SEASON'S  GAME-BAG  WITH  CAMERA 


405 


406          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


AFTER  MOOSE  AND  DEER  IN   NEW 
BRUNSWICK 

During  the  first  week  in  July,  1907, 
I  spent  a  pleasant  week  in  New  Bruns- 
wick hunting  moose  and  deer  with  the 
camera  and  flashlight.  Although  I  had 
traveled  through  this  famous  game  coun- 
try a  number  of  times  en  route  to  New- 
foundland, previous  plans  had  prevented 
a  visit  into  its  wilds. 

In  company  with  Adam  Moore,  the 
famous  guide,  trapper,  and  woods  phi- 
losopher, we  ascended  the  Tobique  River 
seventy  miles  to  its  head-waters,  Nictau 
Lake.  Heavy  and  almost  continuous 
rains  the  previous  month  had  kept  the 
banks  full,  or,  as  Moore  expressed  it,  at  a 
"logging  stage" — a  most  unusual  condi- 
tion for  a  mid-summer  month.  The  Up- 
per Tobique  is  peculiar  in  that  it  has  no 
rapids,  no  falls,  and  no  slack  waters,  ex- 
cepting an  occasional  salmon  pool,  for 
some  sixty  miles ;  yet  it  is  one  of  the 
swiftest  streams  I  have  ever  attempted  to 
paddle.  I  say  attempted,  for  the  grand 
rush  of  this  stream,  supplemented  by  un- 
usually high  water,  made  the  bow  paddle 
useless,  and  all  our  motor  power  was  con- 
centrated in  a  ten-foot  pole  shod  with 
steel,  which  Moore,  a  giant  in  stature  and 
avoirdupois,  standing  aloft  in  the  stern 
of  the  canoe,  wielded  with  an  expertness 
and  strength  that  slowly  but  surely  over- 
came a  current  against  which  four  pad- 
dlers  would  have  succumbed.  Aside  from 
a  sudden  dash  from  one  bank  to  the  other 
in  order  to  escape  water  at  times  too  deep 
for  the  shoving  pole,  no  paddles  were 
used  in  the  three  days  taken  to  ascend 
the  stream. 

Did  space  permit,  much  might  be  writ- 
ten on  the  beautiful  scenery,  the  moose 
and  the  deer  crossing  ahead  of  us,  but 
beyond  the  camera  range,  on  the  slow 
contest  with  the  current,  or  the  attrac- 
tiveness of  the  camp  each  night  with  the 
appetizing  trout  that  lived  to  enjoy  life 
until  the  blazing  campfire  was  the  signal 
for  casting  the  artificial  fly  across  this 
spring-fed  stream. 

Two  days  later,  as  we  entered  the  nar- 
row connecting  creek  between  Lower  and 
Upper  Nictau  Lake,  Moore,  scanning  the 
stream  carefully,  remarked,  "there  were 


plenty  of  moose  in  the  water  today." 
Although  I  had  hunted  moose  for  many 
years,  I  neither  observed  any  disturbance 
in  the  muddy  bottom  nor  any  tracks  upon 
the  bank,  having  failed  to  observe  that 
floating  here  and  there  upon  the  current 
were  numerous  gray-brown  hairs  shed 
by  the  moose  as  they  fed  on  the  aquatic 
plants  in  the  adjoining  lake.  A  few 
minutes  later  we  reached  Moore's  cabin, 
situated  in  a  secluded  corner,  at  the  lower 
end,  ^ where  a  view  of  the  entire  lake  was 
possible.  And  here,  on  the  well-cleared 
bank,  with  a  more  or  less  continuous 
smudge,  we  were  able  to  fight  the  sand 
fly,  black  fly,  and  mosquitoes,  and  yet  be 
in  a  position  to  enter  the  canoe  in  a  mo- 
ment should  a  moose  appear. 

The  next  day  was  dark,  warm,  and 
wet,  while  it  fairly  rained  moose;  and 
their  utter  disregard  of  dampness  was 
noticeable  from  the  fact  of  their  wading 
out  in  the  deeper  portions  of  the  lake, 
where  they  would  go  entirely  out  of 
sight  after  the  roots  of  acquatic  plants. 
But  the  moose  is  so  dark  in  color  and  its 
movements  so  rapid  when  chased  by  a 
canoe  that  I  refrained  from  attempting 
to  picture  them  under  such  unfavorable 
conditions. 

The  following  days  were  more  propi- 
tious, though  showers  fell  occasionally. 
Many  times  during  the  day  we  silently 
paddled  along  the  dark-fringed  shores 
until  close  enough  to  a  feeding  animal  to 
overtake  it  by  rapid  paddling  after  we 
had  been  finally  discovered.  Like  all  the 
deer  family  excepting  the  antelope,  the 
moose  has  a  poor  and  undiscriminating 
eye,  depending  upon  its  keen  nose  and 
sense  of  hearing  for  protection,  and 
therefore  when  the  head  was  freqi  ently 
submerged  it  was  not  hard  to  approach 
with  a  canoe.  During  the  next  five  days 
a  dozen  or  more  pictures  were  taken  by 
this  means,  several  of  which  are  shown 
in  the  present  article. 

But  when  I  returned  each  afternoon 
to  camp  it  was  only  to  prepare  for  a 
much  more  exciting  camera  hunt  after 
darkness  shrouded  this  little  lake.  At 
about  Q  p.  m.  smaller  lenses  were  substi- 
tuted for  the  large  ones  used  in  davli^ht 
work,  and,  entering  the  canoe  with  the 


ONE  SEASON'S  GAME-BAG  WITH  CAMERA 


407 


jacklight  in  the  bow  and  the  flashlight 
apparatus  in  easy  reach,  we  paddled 
along  the  dark  and  silent  waters,  while 
the  canoe  with  its  single  blazing  eye,  was 
seeking  out  some  nocturnal  denizen  along 
the  shore  or  out  in  the  deeper  waters  of 
the  many  bays. 

Until  the  first  night  under  the  jack- 
light,  Adam  Moore  simply  thought  cam- 
era hunting  an  interesting  but  not  un- 
usual pastime,  for  he  had  studied  these 
animals  for  many  years  in  the  waters  and 
in  the  forests  of  his  native  place.  But 
when,  on  the  first  night  out,  his  keen  ears 
•detected  the  wallowing  of  a  moose  at  the 
edge  of  a  small  bog  and  later  saw  its 
"bright,  translucent  eyes  and  its  massive 
"body,  illuminated  by  the  funnel  of  light 
from  the  jack,  he  grew  intensely  inter- 
ested ;  and  when  the  flash  was  fired  and 
the  great  beast  struggled  about,  blinded 
"but  not  really  alarmed,  by  what  was 
taken  to  be  a  flash  of  lightning,  Moore 
laughed  long  and  loud.  Every  night 
thereafter  he  was  the  first  in  the  canoe 
and  impatient  for  the  start.  Here  again 
the  pictures  must  largely  tell  their  story, 
for  space  forbids  a  detailed  account  of 
the  many  exciting  scenes  during  the  day- 
light and  night  bombardment  of  the  New 
Brunswick  moose. 

When  I  parted  from  Moore  on  the 
Lower  Tobique,  the  following  week,  he 
said :  "In  my  varied  experience  and  with 
many  scenes  before  me,  I  can  only  say  in 
all  sincerity  that  the  hunt  of  the  past 
week  has  proved  more  interesting,  more 
exciting,  and  of  more  real  value  in  the 
study  of  animal  life  than  all  that  has 
gone  before."  And  this  from  a  man  who 
has  looked  over  a  rifle  barrel  for  more 
than  forty  years ! 

'THE  REPUTED  BELLIGERENCY  OF  THE  BULL 
MOOSE 

A  prevailing  impression  shared  in, 
alike  by  expert  and  novice,  is  the  be- 
lief that  the  moose — especially  the  bull — 
will  deliberately  charge  the  jacklight  of 
the  night  hunter,  and  in  many  portions  of 
Canada  and  the  United  States  I  have 
l^een  urgently  advised  against  trying  to 
lake  flashlight  pictures  of  this  animal 


from  a  canoe  at  night.  I  recall  with 
marked  distinctness  an  incident  of  many 
years  ago  when  a  hunting  chum  of  mine 
came  back  from  northern  Minnesota, 
where  with  one  of  our  oldest  guides  in 
charge  of  the  canoe  he  had  fired  at  a  big 
bull  moose  from  under  the  jacklight,  and 
how,  with  the  jack  overboard,  and  a  big 
hole  in  the  bottom  of  a  canoe,  they  spent 
the  rest  of  the  night  on  the  banks  of  the 
muddy  marsh,  vowing  never  to  fool  with 
a  moose  again  under  such  circumstances. 

But  long  before  going  to  New  Bruns- 
wick I  had  discovered  that  much  was 
fallacious  in  this  theory,  though  some- 
what mystified  by  some  of  my  exper- 
iences. It  so  happened  when  'the  first 
moose  was  flashed  (a  disreputable  look- 
ing old  cow)  it  left  the  bank,  bore  down 
on  the  canoe,  knocking  both  cameras 
overboard  by  striking  the  projecting 
table,  and  passed  out  in  the  darkness  of 
the  lake  to  be  seen  no  more.  And  then 
the  guide,  who  for  many  years  had  skill- 
fully wielded  the  stern  paddle  in  many  of 
my  flashlight  expeditions,  and  who  had 
absorbed  the  many  tales  of  the  noctur- 
nal savagery  of  the  moose,  remarked,  as 
he  looked  over  his  shoulder  nervously, 
"If  an  old  cow  like  that  can  act  so,  then 
there  will  be  something  doing  when  we 
meet  a  bull,"  or  words  to  that  effect. 
And  I  speculated  too,  as  the  cameras 
were  picked  up,  sustained  in  the  water  by 
the  air-tight  bellows ;  and  then  the  damp- 
ened negatives  were  hurried  back  to 
camp  for  immediate  development. 

\Yhat  would  happen  we  learned  the 
following  year  in  the  Wahnapitae  Lake 
district  of  Canada,  when  one  night  as 
we  searched  for  moose  in  a  long,  narrow 
slough,  a  big  animal  was  heard  feeding  in 
the  water  at  the  edge  of  the  marsh  where 
1)oiid  lilies  irrcw  in  profusion.  A.S  the 
light  slowly  disclosed  the  half  submerged 
body,  we  saw  a  big  bull  moose  facing  us, 
his  "jaws  working  energetically  as  lie 
crushed  the  roots  of  a  lily.  drained  from 
the  bottom  of  the  pond,  lie  looked 
rather  fierce  and  the  convulsive  move- 
ment of  the  jaws  heightened  the  effect. 
It  was  only  after  repeated  signals  from 
me  that  the  canoe  came  cautiously  within 


408          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


A    CONTRAST:    OLD    BEDRAGGLED    COW    MOOSE    INDIFFERENT    TO    APPROACHING    CANOE 
MAGNIFICENT    BULL    MOOSE    IN    ACTION:    XICTAU    LAKE 


ONE  SEASON'S  GAME-BAG  WITH  CAMERA 


409 


LARGE    COW     MOOSE    DETECTING    SCENT    FROM     CAMERA 

NEW  BRUNSWICK 


BLIND:  RED  BROOK  CREI-K 


BULL   MOOSE   STRUGGLING   ASHORE 


4io 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


P>ULL    MOOSE    TAKEN    IN    JULY,    IQO/,    AND    AGAIN    BY    FLASHLIGHT    THREE    NIGHTS  3 

LATER 

The  fact  that  the  same  animal  was  photographed  was  not  discovered  until  the  development  of 
the  plates.     Standing  in  7  feet  of  water. 


ONE  SEASON'S  GAME-BAG  WITH  CAMERA 


41  i 


"        :  *-    /.«»/-•- 

RE  """ 


>'J 


AN  EARLY  FOGGY  MORNING  ON  NICTAU  LAKK,  6  A.  M.:  co\v  MOOSE  FEEDING 

BUCK    WHITE-TAILED    DEER    AT    NEW    BRUNSWICK    TROUT    STRKAM 


4I2 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


ONE  SEASON'S  GAME-BAG  WITH  CAMERA         413 


414         THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


DAYUGHT:    COW    MOOSE    PHOTOGRAPHED    AT    EIGHT    FEET    FROM    BLIND 

Drinking  quarts  of  saline-sulphur  water  at  a  New  Brunswick  natural  lick;  dark  afternoon; 

one-second  exposure 


the  twenty-five  feet,  at  which  the  cameras 
were  focused. 

Then  a  great  flash,  a  heavy  boom  and 
all  was  silent  for  a  moment  as  the  smoke 
of  the  magnesium  powder  drifted  away. 
By  this  time  both  paddles  were  in  the 
water,  and  we  were  preparing  for  the 
worst.  Yet  there  he  stood,  his  jaws — 
now  silent — the  picture  of  what — anger 
or  fear? 

Before  the  question  could  be  answered, 
down  went  the  great  head  with  a  splash 


beneath  the  muddy  surface.  Was  he 
going  to  turn  himself  into  a  submarine 
boat  and  spike  us  from  below?  No;  he 
was  simply  engaged  in  pulling  up  another 
succulent  lily  root  for  his  supper,  satis- 
fied that  the  little  jacklight,  behind  which 
nothing  could  be  seen,  was  but  a  trifling, 
insignificant  thing,  while  the  bright  flash 
and  the  boom  was  a  rather  weak  sort  of  a 
thunder  storm. 

Reloading     the     flash,     reversing    the 
plate  holder,  and  waiting  until  the  head 


ONE  SEASON'S  GAME-BAG  WITH  CAMERA 


4»5 


for  the  third  time  came  to  the  surface, 
I  fired  a  second  flash,  and  then  in  a  fit  of 
carelessness  talked  too  loudly,  where- 
upon, with  a  rush  the  big  animal  pulled 
himself  upon  the  bank,  and  was  swal- 
lowed in  the  darkness  of  the  summer 
night. 

Year  after  year  I  had  similar  exper- 
iences, always  to  find  that  it  was  an  ex- 
ception not  to  obtain  at  least  two  photo- 
graphs of  the  same  moose  at  night;  a 
thing  that  had  never  happened  with  the 
white-tail  deer  in  nearly  twenty  years. 

But  in  New  Brunswick  the  real  expla- 
nation came  for  this  supposed  belliger- 
ency of  the  moose  at  night.  One  even- 
ing, with  Adam  in  the  stern,  his  son  in 
the  middle,  and  myself  behind  the  light, 
we  paddled  toward  a  large  bull  feeding 
in  the  center  of  the  shallow  lake  (page 
410).  When  thirty  feet  away,  the  head 
went  out  of  sight,  and  we  could  have 
passed  over  the  large  antlers  had  we 
tried.  When  the  flash  went  off  he 
showed  no  concern,  so  holding  our  posi- 
tion I  prepared  and  fired  a  second  flash. 
But  when  for  the  third  time  I  pulled  the 
trigger  the  cap  alone  exploded  with  a 
sharp  crack.  In  a  mightly  swirl  the  big 
animal,  alarmed  at  the  snapping  sound 
behind  the  light,  swam  rapidly  away  to 
the  inlet  of  the  lake. 

Recapping  the  flash,  we  paddled  in  the 
direction  he  had  gone,  and  soon  saw  him 
facing  the  light  and  in  about  two  feet  of 
water  close  by  the  bushes  (page  418). 
Again  the  flash  was  fired  but,  showing 
little  concern,  he  began  walking  up  the 
stream,  while  the  paddlers  continued  to 
keep  him  in  sight  while  I  prepared  for 
the  fourth  flash,  aside  from  the  one  that 
missed.  Just  as  he  entered  a  broad 
pool — famous  for  trout — and  with  only 
his  big  antlers  partly  showing  over  the 
body,  I  let  go  the  flash,  for  never  before 
had  I  been  given  a  chance  to  picture  the 
retreating  form  of  a  moose  at  night. 

In  the  fog  of  smoke  before  the  jack  I 
heard  a  great  splash — then  another — 
while  a  deluge  of  cold  water  drenched 
the  cameras  and  myself,  and  there,  stand- 
ing within  four  feet  of  the  jack — the  big 
head  towering  seven  feet  above  the 


canoe— stood  the  bull,  looking  not  down 
into  the  light,  but  beyond  as  though  pre- 
paring for  another  spring. 

It  certainly  seemed  time  to  do  some- 
thing, so,  half  rising,  I  waved  my  cap 
before  his  astonished  eyes  and  gave  a  yell 
that  could  have  been  heard  a  mile  or 
more.  This  was  sufficient,  for  with  an 
easy  lope  he  entered  the  bushes  upon  our 
immediate  left,  and  was  seen  no  more. 
By  this  time  Moore  was  howling  with  de- 
light and  making  some  remarks  about  the 
penetrating  character  of  my  voice,  all  of 
which  I  told  him  might  be  accounted  for 
according  to  the  end  of  the  canoe  one  was 
in  at  the  time.  By  an  amusing  coinci- 
dence this  lively  bombardment  of  a  sub- 
ject of  King  Edward's  occurred  on  the 
night  of  July  4,  and  was  in  keeping  with 
the  pyrotechnic  celebrations  occurring 
the  same  evening  throughout  the  states. 

Yet  this  adventure  explained  it  all  and 
made  finally  clear  what  I  had  long  sus- 
pected. The  vivid  flash  was  only  seen 
by  the  moose  on  the  bushes  ahead,  hence 
its  sudden  retreat;  the  cow  that  appar- 
ently charged  our  light  in  Canada,  as  the 
picture  shows,  was  facing  away  from  us ; 
the  bull  that  my  old  hunting  companion 
shot  at  was  standing,  stern  foremost,  gaz- 
ing at  the  diffused  light  of  the  jack  on 
the  bushes  beyond,  and  the  sudden  rifle 
shot  sent  him  away  from  the  apparent 
source  of  danger  in  front  and  thus  down 
upon  the  canoe.  I  then  remembered  that 
in  five  or  six  instances  all  the  white-tail 
deer  which  had  ever  thrown  water  into 
the  boat  when  dashing  madly  by  us,  in 
each  and  every  case,  were  looking  into  the 
forest  at  the  wavering  light  of  the  jack 
upon  the  trees  or  bushes,  so  when  the  ex- 
plosion came  they  instinctively  rushed 
into  the  water  away  from  the  terrifying 
shadows  of  the  forest.  On  the  other 
hand,  in  the  hundreds  of  flashes  fired  di- 
rectly into  the  faces  of  deer,  moose,  elk, 
and  other  wild  animals,  they  never  in  a 
single  instance  charged  forward  after  the- 
flash  was  fired. 

Hence  avoid  taking  a  flash  or  crack 
from  the  rifle  at  a  moose  when  facing 
away  from  the  jack,  or  otherwise  prepare- 
for  a  possible  collision,  more  or  less  dan- 


41 6         THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


gerous  when  the  great  weight  of  the  ani- 
mal is  considered,  and  if  you  can't 
swim,  don't  try  it  at  all. 

Another  mistake  equally  common  about 
the  moose  is  its  dangerous  character  in 
the  fall,  and  in  support  of  this  hundreds 
of  articles  have  been  written,  many  of 
them  by  honest,  well-meaning,  sportsmen, 
usually  of  somewhat  limited  experience, 
describing  their  narrow  escape  from  the 
sudden  charges  of  these  big  animals  when 
fired  upon.  The  explanation  is  an  easy 
one.  When  the  moose  is  suddenly  shot 
at  from  behind  by  an  unseen  hunter  and 
unwounded,  the  animal  almost  invariably 
takes  its  back  track,  thus  bringing  it  fre- 
quently face  to  face  with  the  surprised 
hunter,  who  may  or  may  not  then  suc- 
ceed in  shooting  it  down ;  and  when  a 
moose  is  fatally  hurt,  or  very  badly 
wounded  by  the  shot  from  an  unobserved 
hunter  in  front  of  the  animal,  it  generally 
rushes  madly  forward  twenty-five  yards 
or  more  in  the  agony  of  its  unexpected 
injury,  and  thus,  once  more,  the  animal 
is  brought  down  upon  the  hunter  with  a 
suddenness  that  is  somewhat  terrifying  to 
those  who  see  in  its  glaring  eyes  an  over- 
powering desire  for  revenge.  In  either 
case  the  animal  has  every  appearance  of 
charging  the  shooter,  and  hence  the  tales 
of  the  tenderfoot. 

Then  again  there  is  a  disposition 
among  some  to  regard  the  bull  moose  as 
particularly  dangerous  in  the  mating  sea- 
son, even  when  not  shot  at.  True,  he  is 
then  more  indifferent  to  his  safety,  but 
because  in  some  remote  forest  his  fever- 
ish eyes  mistake  the  distant  and  skulking 
figure  of  a  man  for  a  lady-love  or  rival, 
and  with  a  bellow  he  approaches,  it  is 
easy  to  understand  how  some  persons 
purposely  or  ignorantly  interpret  such 
impetuosity  as  a  desire  on  the  part  of 
the  animal  to  give  combat  to  his  most 
feared  and  deadly  enemy — man — when, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  just  one  faint  whiff 
of  the  human  body  will  send  the  biggest 
bull  into  headlong  flight,  his  massive 
body  quivering  with  fear. 

INCREASE;  OF  MOOSE  IN  NEW  BRUNSWICK 
DUE  TO  WISE  GAME  LAWS 

The  moose  of  New  Brunswick  were 
extremely  scarce  prior  to  1885,  but  with 


the  gradual  disappearance  of  the  Indian 
trapper  and  hide  hunter  and  the  contin- 
uous migration  of  hundreds  of  these  ani- 
mals across  the  Maine  border  and  the 
passage  of  effective  game  laws,  this 
noble  animal  is  now  more  widely  dis- 
tributed and  is  more  abundant  in  New 
Brunswick  than  in  any  given  area  of 
equal  size  on  the  American  continent. 

No  cows  or  calves  can  be  legally 
killed,  with  the  result  that  thousands  of 
females  now  form  great  breeding  herds 
capable  of  more  than  supplying  the  pres- 
ent destruction  of  the  bull  and  adding 
many  more  each  year  to  the  permanent 
breeding  stock. 

With  the  restoration  of  the  moose 
came  the  white-tail  deer  of  Maine,  and 
they  likewise  are  most  abundant,  saving 
many  a  big  moose  or  caribou  that  would 
otherwise  be  sacrificed  to  meet  the  tem- 
porary needs  of  the  pot-hunter  or  trap- 
per. The  caribou  are  also  plentiful, 
whereas  in  Maine  there  are  now  few  or 
none. 

As  an  example  of  practical  game  pro- 
tection, where  the  producing  animals  are 
carefully  protected  and  the  increment 
made  the  basis  of  a  restricted  killing,  we 
find  a  splendid  example  of  good  judg- 
ment and  concurrent  rewards.  Shall 
we,  in  this  country,  continue  to  ignore 
the  rules  of  common  sense,  improvident 
for  those  of  today  and  regardless  of 
those  to  come? 

A  DIGRESSION   ON   SAVAGE  BEASTS 

At  this  point  I  cannot  avoid  a  digres- 
sion. The  almost  daily  reiterated  re- 
ports of  the  "man  chasing  and  devour- 
ing" wolf,  the  "fierce"  lynx,  the  "savage" 
bear,  the  "terrible"  cougar,  the  "revenge- 
ful" bull  moose  excite  wonderment;  for 
in  my  humble  judgment  all  such  blood- 
curdling attributes  are  unfounded  and 
mendacious  in  nearly  every  particular. 
However  great  the  perils  of  the  African 
jungle,  the  situation  in  this  country  is 
entirely  different.  After  a  personal  ex- 
perience of  more  than  thirty-five  years  in 
the  American  wilderness,  from  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico  to  the  Hudson  Bay  waters, 
and  especially  throughout  the  range  of 
these  particular  animals,  and  after  an 
almost  continuous  investigation  from 


ONE  SEASON'S  GAME-BAG  WITH  CAM 


ERA 


FLASHLIGHT:  LARGE:  BULL  MOOSE:  UPPER  TOBIQUE  RIVER,  NEW  BRUNSWICK 

Photographed  from  a  blind  at  a  distance  of  15  feet  (up.  m.)  July  9,  1907.     The  back  of  the 

moose  slightly  retouched 


4i8 


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ONE  SEASON'S  GAME-BAG  WITH  CAMERA 


420 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


FLASHLIGHT:  YOUNG  BULL  MOOSE)  GAZING  WITH  INTE^RE^ST  AT  APPROACHING  JACK 
LIGHT:  NICTAU  LAKE:,  NKW  BRUNSWICK,  JULY  2, 

hundreds  of  experienced  sources,  I  think 
it  would  be  safe  to  say  that  there  are 
more  persons  injured  or  killed  through 
the  attacks  of  domestic  animals  or  wild 
animals  in  confinement,  or  partial  confine- 
ment, in  a  single  season  than  by  all  the 
wild  animals  of  the  forest  in  the  past 
fifty  years. 

Tales  of  savage  beasts  largely  emanate 
from  two  classes,  the  commercial  nature 
faker  and  the  novice,  in  which  latter 
class  may  frequently  be  included  land- 
lookers,  surveyors,  miners,  the  lumber- 
jack, and  the  temporary  homesteader, 
since  many  of  these  are  wholly  unac- 
quainted with  wild  animal  life  and  very 
often  possess  a  vivid  imagination,  built 
up  partly  upon  fear  and  partly  upon  a 
desire  to  report  startling  tales  equal  to 
the  best  that  appear  in  the  local  press. 
True  it  is  that  the  grizzly  bear,  badly 
wounded  or  defending  its  young,  may  oc- 


casionally  show  fight,  but  the  old  dayr 
when  this  powerful  animal  voluntarily 
stood  its  ground,  is  gone  forever.  At 
least  in  every  district  where  the  repeating 
rifle  has  taught  the  lesson  of  man's  over- 
powering mastery,  and  today  not  a  single 
experienced  sportsman,  naturalist,  guide, 
or  any  reliable  trapper  will  relate  or  un- 
derwrite any  of  these  tales  of  perilous  ad- 
ventures with  the  wild  and  harassed  ani- 
mals of  the  American  forests.  The 
pestiferous  mosquito  and  black  fly  may 
sometimes  force  the  bravest  hunter  or 
trapper  into  a  rapid  retreat,  but  no  man 
need  ever  hesitate  to  go  voluntarily  and 
unarmed  into  any  so-called  wilderness  re- 
sorts of  this  country  through  a  fear  of 
menacing  beasts.  And  in  concluding  this- 
branch  let  it  be  said  emphatically  that  the 
more  dangerous  the  supposed  traits  of 
any  particular  animal,  the  more  the  cer- 
tainty of  its  being  the  one  now  most  fear- 


ONE  SEASON'S  GAME-BAG  WITH  CAMERA 


421 


FLASHLIGHT  :  BOAT  RIGGED  FOR  NIGHT-HUNTING  WITH  CAMERAS,  SHOWING  FLASH- 
LIGHT APPARATUS  AND  JACK  LAMP  :  TAKEN   1893 


ful  of  man's  presence,  whatever  may  be 
its  attitude  towards  the  other  animals  of 
the  forest.  To  this  fact  alone  does  the 
predaceous  quadruped  now  owe  its  exist- 
ence, for  were  it  to  meet  instead  of  re- 
treat from  the  man  with  the  gun  the  end 
would  long  ago  have  been  reached. 

And  let  it  be  said  in  justification  of  my 
apparent  disposition  to  point  out  many 
prevailing  misconceptions  regarding  wild 
animals  that  originally  as  a  sportsman  I 
believed  in  or  accepted  many  of  these 
popular  fallacies.  For  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  with  the  big-game  sportsman 
few  ever  continue  to  kill  moose,  elk,  cari- 
bou, or  bear  in  large  numbers  or  con- 
tinue to  hunt  the  same  animals  year  after 
year,  since  usually  they  seek  a  few  good 


trophies  and  revolt  against  the  further 
killing  of  animals  too  huge  for  transpor- 
tation or  too  tough  for  the  platter;  and 
hence  those  who  hunt  the  same  game  sea- 
son after  season  usually  confine  them- 
selves to  the  smaller  varieties  of  the  deer 
family  or  to  animals  and  birds  whose 
flesh  may  be  utilized. 

Therefore  most  of  the  errors  are  due. 
in  reality,  to  inexperience  with  certain 
habits  of  particular  animals,  however 
great  the  experience  of  the  big-game 
hunter  in  the  general  field  of  sport. 

The  eye  of  the  camera,  the  light  of  the 
jack,  and  of  the  penetrating  flash,  to- 
gether with  the  same  animal  under  close 
observation  for  hours  at  a  time  and  year 
after  year  have  shown  that  in  a  single 


422 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


season  of  camera  hunting  more  accurate 
conclusions  can  be  reached  concerning 
our  big  game  and  their  ways,  in  daylight 
or  in  darkness,  than  will  ever  occur 
through  a  dozen  seasons  where  the  crack 
of  the  rifle  almost  invariably  follows  the 
close  proximity  of  the  wild  animal. 

AT  THE:  OLD  CAMP  ON  LAKE}  SUPERIOR 

While  it  was  the  purpose  of  the  writer 
to  describe  in  extenso  several  camera 
hunts  on  the  Atlantic  coast  during  the 
year,  it  would  seem  disloyal  to  entirely 
omit  his  old  camp  on  White  Fish  Lake, 
in  upper  Michigan,  where,  as  usual,  a 
tew  weeks  were  spent  last  year  and 
where,  as  might  be  expected,  the  camera 
was  used  from  time  to  time.  And  at  this 
point  it  seems  proper  to  briefly  describe 
some  remarkable  changes  in  the  environ- 
ment of  the  white-tail  deer  on  Lake  Su- 
perior and  the  dangers  resulting  there- 
from, for  it  is  of  this  animal,  above  all 
others,  that  the  writer  has  made  a  life- 
long study. 

The  deer  of  upper  Michigan  have  in 
recent  years  greatly  changed  their  habits. 
Formerly  in  the  early  fall  they  gradually 
migrated  south  in  order  to  escape  the 
deep  snows  of  the  Lake  Superior  shores, 
averaging  more  than  five  feet  on  the  level 
in  mid-winter ;  but  the  building  of  several 
lines  of  railway  across  their  old  migrat- 
ing trails,  with  the  rights  of  way  fre- 
quently barred  by  double  barriers  of  wire 
fence,  has  cut  off  the  retreat  to  their 
former  winter  range.  Owing  to  the  rapid 
destruction  of  timber  on  the  hemlock 
ridges  and  the  cedar  swamps  the  winter 
quarters  of  the  deer  in  the  Lake  Superior 
district  have,  each  year,  become  more  and 
more  restricted,  with  the  result  that  these 
animals  seem  doomed  to  quick  destruc- 
tion through  the  ravenous  attacks  of  the 
cunning  timber  wolf.  Compelled  now, 
as  the  deer  are,  to  yard  in  dozens  and 
sometimes  hundreds — with  well-beaten 
trails  throughout  each  range  and  snow 
deep  and  impenetrable  on  all  sides — the 
wolf  has  an  easy  time  in  winter,  for  a 
single  one  may,  in  a  few  hours,  destroy 
dozens  of  deer  under  such  conditions.  It 
has  been  estimated,  from  the  carcasses 


found,  that  over  2,000  deer  have  been 
killed  by  wolves  in  the  vicinity  of  White 
Fish  Lake  in  the  past  four  years,  and 
possibly  many  more. 

There  is  a  picture,  by  flashlight,  on 
page  426  of  one  of  the  few  deer  seen  by 
me  last  season  on  White  Fish  Lake, 
where  to  see  twenty-five  in  a  single  day, 
a  few  years  ago,  was  not  unusual. 

Therefore  it  is  with  pleasure  that  I 
have  also  depicted  on  the  opposite  page 
the  big  gray  timber  wolf  trapped  on  the 
same  trail  used  by  this  particular  deer 
and  on  the  A  ery  next  night.  A  mile  away 
I  heard  its  mournful  howl,  when  the  trap 
was  sprung,  and  the  next  day  the  camera 
shot  preceded  the  rifle  bullet  which  wiped 
out  its  cruel  and  cunning  life.  Yet,  in 
passing  the  death  sentence,  a  feeling  of 
momentary  pity  was  felt,  since,  held  in 
a  cruel  vise  of  steel,  the  big  glowering 
animal  was  in  no  position  to  escape  or 
defend  itself.  This  was  the  nineteenth 
wolf  trapped,  poisoned,  or  shot  in  the 
vicinity  of  my  camp  the  past  thirty  years, 
and  in  number  represent  the  offspring 
of  only  three  female  wolves  in  a  single 
season.  The  bounty  in  Michigan  now 
varies  from  $35  to  $50  per  scalp,  and 
every  effort  is  being  made  to  wipe  out 
this  the  most  resourceful,  destructive, 
and  elusive  animal  on  the  American  conti- 
nent. And  to  the  Biological  Bureau,  at 
Washington,  must  be  credited  much  of 
the  successful  work  now  being  done,  both 
in  the  deer  forests  of  the  North  and  upon 
the  cattle  plains  of  the  West. 

AFTER  THE  NEWFOUNDLAND  CARIBOU 

On  a  previous  occasion  I  had  spent 
many  pleasant  weeks  in  Newfoundland 
fishing,  canoeing,  and  camping  on  the  in- 
terior lakes  and  rivers,  but  it  was  not 
until  the  fall  of  last  year  that  I  made  a 
special  trip  for  caribou,  and  particularly 
for  the  purpose  of  picturing  their  water 
migration  on  several  of  the  larger  lakes, 
for  when  migrating  they  generally  prefer 
the  open  waters  to  traveling  across  bogs 
and  timbered  land. 

With  my  former  guide,  William 
Squires,  we  made  a  canoe  trip  up  Sandy 
River  to  Deer  and  Sandy  lakes — about 


ONE  SEASON'S  GAME-BAG  WITH  CAMERA 


423 


A    75-POUND    TIMBER    WOLF1    TRAPPED- ON    A    DEER    RUNWAY    NEAR    AUTHOR'S    CAMP, 

LAKE   SUPERIOR,    JULY   29,    1907 
An  animal  that  now  threatens  with  extinction  the  deer  in  Lake  Superior  region  and  Canada 

5OO  FOREST   MUSHROOMS  AT  THE  BASE  OF  A  HARD   MAPLE,   LAKE  SUPERIOR 


424         THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


_ 


A  SAPSUCKER  MAKING  FRESH   SAP  BASINS  IN   BARK,   WHERE  IT  ALSO  CATCHES 
ATTRACTED   BY   THE  SWEET  FLUID,   JULY   26, 


ANOTHER   VIEW,    SHOWING    REGULARITY   OF    SAP   BASINS    COVERING    SIX    WEEKS'    USE 


ONE  SEASON'S  GAME-BAG  WITH  CAMERA 


MINK   TAKING    ITS   OWN    PICTURE}    BY   FLASHLIGHT   BY   PULLING   OX    STRING    BAITED- 
WITH    FISH  :    WHITE    FISH    RIVDR,    MICHIGAN,    JULY,    1907 


426 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


ONE  SEASON'S  GAME-BAG  WITH  CAMERA         427 


O      "g 

<      c 


*  § 


§  I 


u     ^ 

<  I 


<        V 


428          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


,  SANDY  RIVER  DISTRICT,   NEWFOUNDLAND 
Where  the  water  migration  of  the  caribou  was  studied.     Note  camera  in  bow  of  canoe 


lialf  the  distance  north  of  Grand  Lake 
that  we  had  gone  the  year  before.  Our 
•camp  was  located  at  the  outlet  of  the 
lake,  which,  with  the  adjoining  one, 
formed  an  east-west  base  line  of  more 
than  nine  miles  across  the  southerly  line 
of  migration.  Here,  on  the  second  day, 
a  fine  stag  with  an  antlered  doe  and  fawn 
•quickly  entered  the  water,  and  looking 
neither  to  the  right  nor  the  left,  began 
their  long  swim  across  the  lake. 

In  a  few  minutes  the  canoe  was  by 
their  sides,  when,  raising  their  heads 
.aloft — previously  held  close  to  the  wa- 
ter— they  made  a  gallant  effort  to  out- 
strip us,  their  stubby  white  tails  held 
.aloft  like  peaceful  flags  of  truce.  Yet 
why  describe  what  the  camera  saw  each 
•day,  when  here  are  the  scenes  them- 
selves. 

I  was  surprised  to  note  the  small  num- 
ber of  fawns,  based  upon  close  personal 
•observations  and  those  of  several  others. 
In  more  than  300  does  of  which  I  have  a 
record  last  fall  there  was  on  an  average 
"but  one  fawn  to  four  does — in  striking 
contrast  to  the  moose  and  the  deer,  who, 
"besides  usually  having  two  young  each, 
are  more  or  less  harassed  by  the  timber 


wolf  and  cougar,  while  in  Newfoundland 
man  is  the  sole  enemy  of  the  caribou,  for 
the  wolves,  once  numerous,  have  about 
become  extinct. 

And  this  proportion  held  true  under  a 
great  variety  of  circumstances;  for  with 
single  does  three  were  barren  out  of 
every  four,  and  in  a  group  of  four  there 
would  be  but  one  fawn  or  none,  and  in 
one  band  of  sixteen  does,  crossing  the 
river  in  single  file,  I  counted  but  four 
fawns,  and  in  larger  herds  the  young 
were  equally  scarce.  While  this  may  be 
due  to  the  extremely  damp  and  rigorous 
weather  in  the  spring,  at  the  time  the 
fawns  are  born,  or  to  the  peculiar  habit 
of  single  stags  in  rounding  up  great  herds 
of  does  each  fall,  the  fact  seems  to  be 
that  the  young  of  each  year  are  away 
below  the  average  of  those  of  the  other 
antlered  game  in  this  country. 

And  if  my  conclusions  are  right,  it 
only  points  out  the  great  necessity  for 
proper  game  laws  on  this  island ;  for 
once  these  great  herds  of  caribou  are 
greatly  reduced  in  numbers  the  process 
of  restoration  will  be  extremely  slow. 

There  is  another  matter  that  I  may 
express  an  opinion  upon,  though  it  differs 


ONE  SEASON'S  GAME-BAG  WITH  CAMERA         429 


TESTING  CAMERA  WITH  THREAD  SET  ACROSS  CARIBOU  TRAIL 

DOE  AND  FAWN  THAT  TOOK  THEIR  OWN  PICTURES  SEVERAL  HOURS  LATER:  NEW- 
FOUNDLAND, OCTOBER  2O,  1907 


43° 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


DAYLIGHT:    WEASEL :    NEWFOUNDLAND!    ITS    NIMBLENESS    MAKES    IT    HARD    TO 

PHOTOGRAPH 

CARIBOU    STAG,    DOE,    AND    FAWN  I    ONE-HALF    OF    THE    DOES    CARRY    SMALL    HORNS. 
THE  FAWN   IS  ASSISTED  BY  THE  SUCTION   IN   SWIMMING 


ONE  SEASON'S  GAME-BAG  WITH  CAMERA         43  r 


CARIBOU    IN   AGONIZED   RUSH    TO   ESCAPE)    CANOE 
CARIBOU    SWIM    SLOWLY,    BUT    GO    ASHORE    WITH    GREAT    SPEED 


43  2          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


^ 

n 

^ « 

en   O 


ONE  SEASON'S  GAME-BAG  WITH  CAMERA         433 


VERY    LARGE    CARIBOU    STAG,    TAKEN    IN    ROUGH    WATER    AND    ON    A    DARK    DAY 

CARIBOU   STAG   WITH    SYMMETRICAL   HORNS   PHOTOGRAPHED   AT   EIGHT   FEET.       NOTE 
BEAUTIFUL    WHITE    COLLAR    CARRIED    BY    STAGS    ONLY 


434         THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


from  the  statements  of  Mr  Selous  and 
other  well-known  sportsmen  who  have 
hunted  on  this  island,  viz.,  the  supposedly 
great  speed  of  the  caribou  in  swimming. 
When  undisturbed,  a  single  caribou, 
crossing  large  lakes,  swims  about  three 
miles  an  hour,  and  a  fair-sized  herd 
swims  somewhat  slower.  When  first 
sighting  the  canoe,  the  animal  springs 
half  out  of  the  water,  and  then,  with 
head  erect,  tries  to  elude  the  paddlers, 
and  for  the  first  one  hundred  yards  its 
speed  varies  between  five  and  six  miles 
an  hour;  and  then,  becoming  somewhat 
exhausted  by  the  extreme  exertion,  the 
speed  slows  down  to  about  three  and  one- 
half  miles  an  hour — a  gait  that  one  pad- 
dler  in  a  loaded  canoe  has  no  trouble  in 
beating.  The  swimming  speed  of  this 
animal  is  therefore  below  that  of  the 
moose  and  the  white-tail  deer. 

I  saw  no  caribou  enter  the  water  be- 
fore 7  a.  m.  or  later  than  5  p.  m.,  the 
movement  being  greatest  from  10  to  3. 
The  animals,  as  a  rule,  are  not  nocturnal, 
either  when  migrating  or  feeding,  though 
in  the  fly  season  they  feed  at  night,  and 
late  in  the  fall,  under  the  stress  of  heavy 
snow-storms,  sometimes  travel  night  and 
day. 

It  is  also  noticeable  that  they  gener- 
ally move  against  the  wind,  depending 
almost  wholly  upon  the  nose  to  detect 
danger,  which  from  time  immemorial  al- 
ways lay  before  them,  in  their  long  march 
from  the  northern  peninsula  to  the  south- 
erly coast.  As  the  result  of  relying  so 
much  upon  scent,  neither  their  hearing 
nor  sense  of  sight  is  at  all  acute,  for  one 
may  sit  close  to  the  runway  and  the  ani- 
mal, if  the  wind  is  favorable,  will  pass 
by  within  a  rod. 

Since  the  building  of  the  railroad  that 
intersects  the  island,  many  large  herds 
of  caribou  remain  permanently  either 
north  or  south  of  the  track,  and  in  this 
respect  resemble  the  white-tail  deer  of 
northern  Michigan  before  mentioned. 

While  the  island  is  visited  each  fall  by 
numerous  non-resident  sportsmen  in 
quest  of  stags  with  fine  heads,  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  compute  the  amount  of  meat 
abandoned  each  year  in  the  more  remote 


portions  or  because  the  rankness  of  the 
stag  often  makes  its  meat  unfit  for  food 
at  that  season  of  the  year.  Two  years 
ago,  for  instance,  I  met  three  young  col- 
legians from  the  "States,"  who  several 
days  before,  on  barrens  east  of  Grand 
Lake,  encountered  a  number  of  migrating 
caribou,  and  by  good  judgment  and  ac- 
curate shooting  had,  in  a  single  day, 
picked  out  and  killed  nine  large  caribou 
stags — the  three  apiece  allowed  by  law. 
They  candidly  admitted  that,  owing  to 
the  toughness  of  the  stags  and  the  dis- 
tance from  their  camp,  every  ounce,, 
aside  from  the  heads,  had  been  aban- 
doned, representing  a  total  of  more  than 
3,500  pounds. 

Yet  these  young  men  had  come  thou- 
sands of  miles  for  caribou  hunting  and 
were  in  every  (other)  respect  a  manly 
set  of  fellows.  After  seeing  some  of  my 
caribou  pictures  and  hearing  the  inci- 
dents connected  therewith,  they  seemed 
to  realize  that  big-game  hunting  with  the 
camera  was  an  ideal  method  and  one 
that  they  hoped  to  try  hereafter.  As 
with  the  caribou  stags,  so  with  the  bull 
moose,  the  bull  elk,  and  the  gigantic 
grizzly  bear,  whose  decaying  flesh  we 
have  noticed  year  after  year  polluting 
the  air  of  some  beautiful  valley,  simply 
because  the  antlers  or  the  -hide  was  all 
that  could  be  saved  when  these  great  ani- 
mals were  stricken  down  in  districts  too 
remote  for  transportation. 

THE     BROWN     PELICANS     OF     THE     INDIAN 
RIVER 

For  many  years  I  had  been  familiar 
with  the  pelican  colony  on  Indian  River, 
Florida.  On  one  occasion,  four  or  five 
years  ago,  I  made  a  trip  expressly  to 
take  flashlight  pictures  of  the  breeding 
birds,  but  upon  firing  the  first  flash  the 
whole  colony  took  wing,  heading  for  the 
boat  with  its  glaring  lantern,  until  we 
were  fairly  overwhelmed,  as  hundreds 
of  great  birds,  with  flapping  wings  and 
large  bodies,  banged  into  or  over  the 
boat.  Crouching  down  in  the  bottom, 
with  the  cameras  hurled  from  the  bow, 
we  waited  until  the  avalanche  was  over, 
when  my  Virginia  guide,  a  stranger  to 


ONE  SEASON'S  GAME-BAG  WITH  CAMERA        435 


RISING  FLIGHT  OF  PELICANS:  a.  WINGS  SEEN  AT  DIFFERENT  ANGLES,    b.  WHERE 

IT   RESEMBLES   THE   CANADA   GOOSE 


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these  waters,  remarked 
as  he  tossed  a  flapping 
bird  overboard,  "Darn 
these  pell-mellicans." 
Through  fear  of  dis- 
turbing the  birds  fur- 
ther in  the  midst  of  the 
nesting  season,  we 
quietly  withdrew  with  a 
single  much-prized  pic- 
ture to  our  credit. 

This    spring,    in   com- 
pany   with    my    former 
shipmate,      Mr       Chap- 
man,   we    revisited    the 
island,   he  to  take  cine- 
matograph   pictures    of 
this     wonderful     colony 
and  some  upon  the  new 
colored  plates,  and  I  to 
c/j    get     pictures     of     these 
^    birds    in    flight    or   with 
y    the  stereoscopic  camera. 
£       We   found  on   March 
^    10    most    of   the    young 
o    birds    re-ady    for    flight, 
H    numbering    some    1,500, 
£    while     scattered     about 
3    were     the     remains     of 
fa    fully  800  more  of  a  later 
g    hatching,     killed     either 
So    by   the   heavy   freeze   of 
the    week   before    or   by 
reason     of    a    midnight 
raid  made  by  local  fish- 
ermen,   who,    disregard- 
ing   the    fact    that    the 
pelicans       live       almost 
wholly  upon  the  worth- 
less  menhaden   taken   in 
the      open      sea,      have 
shown  in  recent  years  a 
great      enmity      toward 
these   birds   because   the 
young     occasionally,     in 
their  early  efforts,  catch 
a  few  mullet  in  the  In- 
dian River. 

The  brown  pelicans- 
are  abundant  on  the 
Florida  and  Gulf  coasts, 
When  going  or  return- 


ONE  SEASON'S  GAME-BAG  WITH  CAMERA          437 


438 


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ONE  SEASON'S  GAME-BAG'  WITH  CAMERA         439 


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YOUNG   PELICAN   IN   "GOOSE-FLESH"   PHASE 


ONE  SEASON'S  GAME-BAG  WITH  CAMERA         44.1 


PELICANS    IX    SHADOW   OF   APPROACHING    THUNDERSTORM 


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ONE  SEASON'S  GAME-BAG  WITH  CAMERA         443 


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CATBIRD   BATING   ORANGE  :    HALIFAX    RIVER,    FLORIDA,    APRIL    I,    1908 
BROWN   THRASHER   APPROACHING   ORANGE    ( SEE  PAGE  446) 


ONE  SEASON'S  GAME-BAG  WITH  CAMERA          445 


WILD   GRAY    SQUIRRELS    EATING   ORANGES,    HALIFAX   RIVER,    FLORIDA,    APRIL    I,    1 908 


446 


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ing  from  the  fishing  grounds  they 
usually  fly  in  flocks  of  from  four  to  ten, 
in  single  file,  the  leader  setting  the  pace 
and  the  rest  in  slow  measured  strokes 
flop  or  sail  in  unison.  The  adult,  in  the 
breeding  season,  has  a  seal-brown  head 
and  neck  with  a  yellowish  crown,  the 
remainder  of  the  body  being  silver  gray ; 
the  young,  when  half  grown,  are  a  soft, 
snow  white,  changing  to  a  dull  gray 
brown  for  the  first  year. 

Late  in  October  and  on  the  same  clay 
the  pelicans  of  Indian  River  suddenly 
assemble  from  all  directions  as  though 
controlled  by  instinct  or  concerted  sig- 
nals, and  a  few  weeks  later  are  house- 
keeping on  a  small  island  occupied  ex- 
clusively by  pelicans  for  at  least  seventy- 
five  years. 

Recently  all  the  mangrove  bushes  have 
been  broken  down  or  destroyed  by  the 
heavy  nests,  with  the  result  that  the  peli- 
can, from  a  tree-nesting  bird,  now  occu- 
pies the  ground,  even  though  many 
similar  adjoining  islands  are  well 
wooded. 

The  breeding  season  is  very  pro- 
longed, lasting  until  nearly  June,  with 
marked  evidence  of  breeding  in  detach- 
ments, due  partly  to  the  small  area  of 
the  island,  the  loss  of  young  by  high 
tides  or  frosts,  and  perhaps  also  to  the 
fact  that  many  of  these  birds  raise  more 
than  one  brood  each  season. 

The  young  are  usually  three  in  num- 
ber and  therefore,  unlike  the  man-o'-war 
birds  and  the  boobies,  are  sufficiently 
abundant  to  withstand  the  ordinary  per- 
secution by  man,  destruction  by  disease, 
or  the  elements.  The  full-grown  young 
are  cannibalistic,  swallowing  down  the 
newly  hatched  with  evident  relish  when- 
ever the  parent  birds  of  the  latter  are 
away  for  more  than  a  moment  or  two. 

Under  the  wise  protection  of  the  Na- 
tional Audubon  Society  and  through  the 
foresight  of  President  Roosevelt  in  set- 
ting aside  this  island  as  a  government 
reservation  for  breeding  birds,  there 
should  be  little  difficulty  in  preserving 
the  pelican  of  Florida  from  extinction, 
where  now  they  may  be  seen  daily  along 
four  hundred  miles  of  coast,  partly  fill- 
ing the  gap  made  by  the  almost  complete 


destruction  of  the  egret,  the  white  heron, 
the  flamingo,  and  the  roseate  spoonbill, 
the  former  victims  of  a  woman's  fashion. 

SMALL  GAME  IN  A  FLORIDA  ORANGE  GROVE 

We  have  now  nearly  reached  the  bot- 
tom of  last  season's  game-bag,  and  in  it 
will  be  found  specimens  of  bird  and  ani- 
mal life  more  common  to  the  suburbs  or 
the  less  remote  portions  of  our  country. 
To  many  of  the  present  readers  big-game 
hunting  is  beyond  their  anticipation,  and 
therefore  the  opportunity  to  picture  at 
their  country  homes  many  local  birds 
and  animals  is  worth  reciting,  however 
much  the  writer's  inclination  lies  in  seek- 
ing game  of  rarer  kind. 

After  leaving  the  pelicans  of  Indian 
River  a  visit  was  made  to  relatives  on 
the  Halifax  River,  one  hundred  miles 
farther  north,  where  a  big  orange  grove 
extended  back  to  heavy  timber  and  many 
thickets.  No  rain  having  fallen  for 
three  months,  the  birds  and  forest  ani- 
mals were  alert  for  any  new  sources  of 
water  supply.  Taking  advantage  of  this, 
I  sank  a  small  wooden  pail  level  with  the 
soil,  filled  it  with  water,  and  by  it  scat- 
tered bread  crumbs,  grain,  and  oranges 
cut  in  twain,  while  twenty  feet  away  my 
little  green  canvas  tent  was  erected, 
partly  sheltered  with  palmettoes. 

In  a  short  while  many  visitors  came, 
and  as  the  tent  was  moved  closer  each 
day,  they  feared  it  not.  On  the  third 
day  I  entered  the  blind  for  the  first  time, 
using  my  largest  lens  (i4~inch  focus). 

In  the  total  of  four  hours  spent  in  the 
tent  on  different  days,  I  succeeded  in  get- 
ting photographs  of  the  cardinal  (male 
and  female),  mocking-bird,  cheewink 
(male  and  female),  turtle-dove,  sand- 
dove,  brown  thrasher,  field  sparrows, 
quail  (male  and  female),  squirrels,  rab- 
bits, and  wood-rats,  several  of  which  are 
here  shown  approaching  or  nibbling  at 
the  oranges,  which  above  all  else  were 
their  favorite  food  and  drink.  A  pair 
of  quail  excited  my  greatest  interest,  as 
their  appearance  was  totally  unexpected, 
though  I  had  been  hearing  their  soft 
spring  notes  near  by  for  several  days. 

And  here  ends,  for  the  present  at  least, 
the  tale  of  a  camera's  conquest  in  the 
realms  of  the  woods  and  the  waters. 


MAGNETIC  SURVEY  OF  THE  PACIFIC 


447 


PEARY'S  POLAR  EXPEDITION 

THE  substantial  and  exceedingly 
generous  subscription  of  $10,000 
by  Mr  Zenas  Crane,  of  Dalton,  Massa- 
chusetts, to  the  Peary  Polar  Expedition 
will  probably  enable  Commander  Peary 
to  go  north  again  in  July,  1908.  The 
Roosevelt  has  been  refitted  with  new 
boilers  and  machinery  and  stocked  with 
sufficient  provisions  for  three  years'  ab- 
sence. Provided  $15,000  additional  is 
subscribed,  and  we  are  informed  by 
Commander  Peary  that  he  has  good 
hope  of  obtaining  this  amount,  the  ex- 
pedition will  leave  New  York  early  in 
July.  Commander  Peary  will  take  a 
second  ship  as  far  as  Smith  Sound  to 
carry  extra  supplies  and  coal  for  the 
Roosevelt.  After  embarking  his  Es- 
quimo  at  Etah,  Greenland,  he  plans  to 
force  the  Roosevelt  as  far  north  as  the 
ship  attained  on  his  last  expedition,  and 
then  to  winter  on  the  north  coast  of 
Grant  Land,  making  his  polar  dash  in 
the  spring  of  1909. 

If  Commander  Peary  can  establish  his 
winter's  base  for  the  coming  expedition 
as  far  north  as  he  had  it  last  time,  we 
have  strong  reasons  for  believing  that  he 
will  succeed  in  reaching  the  Pole  on  the 
next  attempt.  His  last  dash  across  the 
ice  was  unsuccessful  largely  owing  to  the 
rapid  current  discovered  by  him  setting 
eastward  across  the  northernmost  coast. 
This  current,  however,  he  intends  shall 
help  his  advance  on  the  present  expedi- 
tion, as  he  will  march  in  a  northwesterly 
direction  instead  of  aiming  straight  for 
the  Pole  when  he  leaves  land.  The  cur- 
rent would  then  carry  him  toward  the 
Pole  instead  of  away  from  it.  Readers 
of  this  Magazine  are  referred  to  the  spe- 
cial map  of  the  North  Polar  regions  and 
the  Arctic  number,  July,  10,07,  which 
shows  the  route  planned  by  Commander 
Peary  for  the  present  expedition. 

It  would  be  most  unfortunate  if  suffi- 
cient funds  were  not  forthcoming  to  en- 
able Commander  Peary  to  go  north  once 
more.  He  is  in  the  prime  of  life  and  has 
more  than  twenty  years  of  success- 
ful Arctic  experience  behind  him.  Mr 
Zenas  Crane  merits  the  cordial  approval 


of  all  Americans  who  want  to  see  this 
great  geographical  problem  solved  soon 
and  by  an  American. 

MAGNETIC   SURVEY   OF  THE 
PACIFIC 

WITH  the  return  of  the  yacht  Gali- 
lee to  San  Francisco  on  May 
21,  after  an  absence  of  nearly  three  years, 
a  most  successful  expedition  is  brought 
to  a  close.  This  yacht  was  chartered  by 
the  Department  of  Research  in  Terres- 
trial Magnetism  of  the  Carnegie  Institu- 
tion of  Washington  in  order  to  make  a 
magnetic  survey  of  the  Pacific  Ocean, 
both  in  the  interest  of  safe  navigation  of 
these  waters  and  of  r  r.gnetic  science  in 
general.  For  a  fuller  statement  of  the 
objects  of  the  work  and  of  the  results  of 
practical  and  scientific  importance  ob- 
tained, the  reader  is  referred  to  the  ar- 
ticle by  the  Director  of  the  Department 
of  Terrestrial  Magnetism,  Dr  L.  A. 
Bauer,  on  "The  Work  in  the  Pacific 
Ocean  of  the  Magnetic  Survey  Yacht 
Galilee,"  in  this  Magazine,  September, 
1907. 

For  the  greater  part  of  her  lengthy 
cruise  the  Galilee  was  commanded  by 
Mr  W.  J.  Peters,  the  scientific  repre- 
sentative of  the  National  Geographic 
Society  on  the  Ziegler  Polar  Expedition. 
He  has  been  assisted  by  the  following  ob- 
servers, assigned  to  him  at  various 
times :  Messrs  J.  P.  Ault,  D.  C.  Sowers, 
J.  C.  Pearson,  P.  H.  Dike.  Dr  Martyn, 
and  Dr  George  Peterson.  Captain  J.  T. 
Hayes,  a  skillful  sailing  master,  had 
charge  of  the  navigation  of  the  vessel 
throughout  the  cruises.  Dr  Bauer  in  his 
various  reports  accords  the  highest 
praise  to  Mr  Peters  and  his  assistants 
for  the  very  satisfactory  and  expeditious 
manner  in  which  the  magnetic  work  was 
performed. 

The  total  length  of  the  cruises  exe- 
cuted in  the  Pacific  Ocean  during  the 
period  of  not  quite  three  years  aggre- 
gates 65,000  miles,  or  equivalent  to  a 
circumnavigation  of  the  globe  two  and  a 
half  times.  The  cruises  extended  from 
the  Pacific  to  the  Asiatic  coast  and  from 
the  Aleutian  Islands  down  to  New  Zea- 


448 


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land,  almost  every  prominent  port  of  the 
islands  in  the  Pacific  Ocean  having  been 
visited. 

Though  this  vessel  had  no  auxiliary 
power  whatsoever,  but  had  to  depend 
entirely  upon  her  sails  for  motive  power, 
and  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  she  encoun- 
tered at  times  most  terrific  storms,  only 
one  accident  befell  the  party.  While  at 
Yokohama  the  Galilee  was  blown  by  a 
typhoon  during  the  night  of  August  24, 
1906,  against  the  breakwater,  such  dam- 
age being  sustained  that  the  vessel  sank 
in  about  fourteen  feet  of  water,  the  party 
and  crew  being  obliged  to  take  refuge  in 
the  lighthouse  on  the  breakwater  and 
remain  there  iv'  1  the  storm  had  sub- 
sided. The  vessel  was,  however,  at  once 
drydocked  and  the  repairs  pushed,  so 
that  ten  days  after  the  accident  she  left 
Yokohama  for  a  6,ooo-mile  cruise  to  San 
Diego,  California.  Not  a  single  life  was 
lost  throughout  the  entire  time. 

The  Galilee  is  now  to  be  returned  to 
her  owners,  and  it  is  noted  with  gratifi- 
cation that  Dr  Bauer's  plea  for  a  vessel 
especially  adapted  for  ocean  magnetic 
work  (see  article  above  referred  to)  has 
met  with  success.  The  Carnegie  Insti- 
tution has  undertaken  to  build  a  vessel, 
in  the  construction  of  which  very  little 
iron  will  enter.  The  plans  are  now  being 
drawn  by  Mr  Henry  J.  Gielow,  naval 
architect  and  engineer,  of  New  York, 
and  it  is  expected  that  this  new  vessel, 
to  be  called  the  Carnegie,  will  be  ready 
in  time  to  resume  the  ocean  magnetic 
work  a  year  from  now,  this  time  in  the 
Atlantic  Ocean. 

THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  INDIAN 

THE  first  two  volumes  of  Mr.  Ed- 
ward S.  Curtis'  work  on  the 
"North  American  Indian"  have  ap- 
peared, Volume  I  describing  the  Apache 
and  the  Navaho,  and  Volume  II  the 
Pima,  Papago,  Mohave,  Yuma,  Mari- 
copa,  Walapai,  and  Apache  Mohave.  An 
advance  announcement  of  this  work  was 
given  in  the  July,  1907,  number  of  this 
Magazine.  Mr  Curtis,  it  will  be  remem- 
bered, is  making  an  ethnological  study 
and  a  photographic  record  of  all  Indians 


in  the  United  States  and  Alaska  still  liv- 
ing in  a  primitive  state.  His  illustrations 
are  to  appear  in  twenty  quarto  volumes, 
accompanied  by  twenty  portfolios,  each 
containing  forty  large  photogravures. 
The  work  possesses  great  historical  and 
ethnical  value,  for  Mr  Curtis  describes 
and  pictures  the  Indians  in  their  every- 
day life,  showing  their  customs,  their 
games,  and  ceremonial  life  in  a  complete 
detail  never  before  attempted.  The  fore- 
word is  by  President  Roosevelt,  while 
the  work  is  edited  by  Mr  F.  W.  Hodge. 

The  Apaches,  who  at  present  number 
about  6,000,  for  the  most  part  live  in  the 
White  Mountain  Reservation  of  Ari- 
zona. Though  their  number  probably 
never  exceeded  10,000,  they  were  for 
many  years  the  scourge  of  a  large  region 
in  Arizona  and  New  Mexico.  The  name 
"Apache"  is  one  of  the  most  notorious 
and  widely-advertised  of  Indian  names, 
but  very  little  was  known  about  the 
inner  life  and  customs  of  the  tribe  until 
Mr  Curtis  obtained  the  friendship  of 
their  elders,  and  was  by  them  initiated 
into  many  of  their  traditions  and  cere- 
monies. He  had  the  good  luck  of  being 
in  the  Apache  country  when  the  new 
"messiah  craze"  was  at  its  height  in 
1906,  and  gives  an  interesting  account  of 
the  religious  ecstacy  of  this  primitive 
folk.  At  present  many  of  the  Apaches 
are  working  for  the  government  on  the 
great  Salt  River  irrigation  project  in 
Arizona. 

The  Navahoes,  who  are  also  described 
in  Volume  I,  next  to  the  Sioux,  are  the 
largest  Indian  tribe  in  the  United  States. 
They  are  self-supporting,  and  own  large 
flocks  and  herds.  They  have  been  the 
least  affected  by  civilizing  influences. 
Mr  Curtis  calls  the  Navaho  "the  Amer- 
ican Bedouin,"  and  says  he  asks  nothing 
of  the  government  except  to  be  unmo- 
lested in  his  pastoral  life. 

The  nine  tribes  treated  in  Volume  II 
reside  within  the  limits  of  Arizona,  but 
extend  into  the  Mexican  state  of  Sonora 
and  into  eastern  California. 

The  Yuma  and  the  Mohave,  whose 
homes  are  on  the  banks  of  the  mighty 
Colorado,  are  usually  fine  specimens 


THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  INDIAN  4-f9 


Photo  and  copyright  by  Edward  S.  Curtis 


THE    APACHE 


45 o          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


Photo  and  copyright  by  Edward  S.  Curtis 

CHIEF  GARFIELD:  j  ICARILLA — APACHE 


THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  INDIAN 


45' 


Photo  and  copyright  by  Edward  S.  Curtis 
JICARILLA — APACHE    MAIDEN 


45 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


physically,  being  large  boned,  strongly 
built,  and  clear  skinned.  Within  a  short 
distance  of  them,  in  the  high  altitudes,  live 
the  Walapai,  of  the  same  family.  They 
are  the  direct  opposite  of  the  river  In- 
dians— hardy  mountain  types,  physically 
and  mentally  quick  of  action,  for  their 
rugged  mountain  home  has  ever  de- 
manded of  them  a  hard  fight  for  exist- 
ence. Adjoining  them,  in  Cataract  can- 
yon of  the  Colorado,  are  the  Havasupai, 
also  of  the  Yuman  family,  whose  sur- 
roundings are  truly  unique.  Though 
they  cultivate  small  patches  in  their  can- 
yon home,  for  subsistence  they  depend 
much  upon  the  chase,  and,  like  the  Wal- 
apai, are  a  wiry  mountain  people.  The 
Maricopa,  another  Yuman  tribe,  who 
have  long  lived  in  the  valley  of  the  Gila, 
exhibit  the  effect  of  their  Colorado  river 
origin,  both  in  physique  and  in  their 
slowness  of  thought. 

The  Pima  from  earliest  tradition  have 
dwelt  within  the  Gila  drainage  in  south- 
ern Arizona.  From  one  point  of  view 
they  are  ideal  Indians — industrious,  keen 
of  mind,  friendly,  to  civilization,  and 
tractable. 

These  various  tribes  have  been  broadly 
termed  with  the  Pueblos,  the  sedentary 
Indians  of  the  Southwest.  Most  of  them 
came  early  in  direct  contact  with  Span- 
ish missionaries,  whose  ministrations 
they  received  in  friendly  spirit,  yet  after 
more  than  two  centuries  of  zealous  effort 
little  has  been  accomplished  toward  sub- 
stituting the  religion  of  the  white  man 
for  that  of  their  fathers.  True,  many 
are  professed  adherents  of  the  Christian 
faith,  but  only  in  rare  instances  has  an 
Indian  really  abandoned  his  own  gods. 
As  a  rule  the  extent  of  their  Christian- 
ization  has  been  their  willingness  to  add 
another  god  to  their  pantheon. 

The  Pimas  and  Yumas  and  their  allies 
were  the  builders  of  those  wonderful 
monuments  of  the  Southwest  which  inr 
dicate  that  a  great  population  formerly 
lived  there,  and  has  since  been  dispersed. 

It  is  very  fortunate  that  a  man  like 
Mr  Curtis  is  able  to  make  a  historical 
record  of  the  Indians  before  they  have 
been  obliterated. 


BOOKS  RECEIVED 

Outdoor  Pastimes  of  an  American  Hunter. 
By  Theodore  Roosevelt.  New  and  enlarged 
edition.  Pp.  420.  6^/4  x  gl/2  inches.  Illus- 
trated. New  York  :  Charles  Scribner's  Sons. 
1908.  $3.00. 

The  California  Earthquake  of  1906.  Edited 
by  David  Starr  Jordan.  Pp.  360.  9x6  inches. 
Illustrated.  San  Francisco :  A.  H.  Robert- 
son. 1907.  $3.50. 

California  and  the  Californians.  By  David 
Starr  Jordan.  Pp.  48.  7x5  inches.  San 
Francisco :  A.  H.  Robertson.  1907.  $0.75. 

The    Alps    of    the    King-Kern    Divide.      By 


David  Starr  Jordan.  Pp.  22.  7  x  4%  inches. 
San  Francisco :  A.  H.  Robertson.  1907. 
$0.75. 

The  Mother  of  California.  By  Arthur  Wai- 
bridge  North.  With  an  introduction  by  Cyrus 
C.  Adams.  Being  a  historical  sketch  of  the 
little-known  land  of  Baja,  California,  from 
the  days  of  Cortez  to  the  present  time,  de- 
picting the  ancient  missions  therein  estab- 
lished, the  mines  there  found,  and  the  phys- 
ical, social,  and  political  aspects  of  the 
country,  together  with  an  extensive  bibliog- 
raphy relative  to  the  same.  Pp.  169.  6x9 
inches.  Illustrated.  New  York:  Paul  Elder 
&  Co.  1908.  $2.00. 

American  Communities  and  Co-operative 
Colonies.  By  William  Alfred  Hines.  Second 
revision.  Pp.  608.  5^/2  x  8  inches.  Illustrated. 
Chicago  :  Charles  H.  Kerr  &  Co.  1908. 

The  American  Constitution.  The  national 
powers,  the  rights  of  the  states,  the  liberties 
of  the  people.  By  Frederick  Jesup  Stimson. 
Pp.  259.  5^4  x  7^4  inches.  New  York: 
Charles  Scribner's  Sons.  1908. 

Report  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey. 

Showing  the  progress  of  the  work  from  July 
i,  1906,  to  June  30,  1907.  Washington:  Gov- 
ernment Printing  Office.  1907. 
Water  Resources  of  Alabama.  By  Eugene 
Allen  Smith.  Prepared  in  co-operation  with 
the  United  States  Geological  Survey.  1908. 

In  Indian  Mexico.  A  narrative  of  travel  and 
labor.  By  David  Starr._  Pp.  425.  9^x6^ 
inches.  Illustrated.  Chicago :  Forbes  &  Co. 
1908.  $5.00. 

Mexico,  with  comparisons  and  conclusions. 
By  A.  A.  Graham.  Pp.  283.  Sl/4  x  7^/4  inches. 
Topeka,  Kans. :  Crane  &  Co.  1907. 

To  the  Top  of  the  Continent.  Discovery,  ex- 
ploration, and  adventure  in  sub-arctic  Alaska. 
The  first  ascent  of  Mount  McKinley,  1903- 
1906.  By  Fred.  A.  Cook.  Pp.  321.  6^x9^ 
inches.  Illustrated.  New  York :  Doubleday, 
Page  &  Co.  1908.  $2.50. 

Retrieval  at  Panama.  By  Lindon  W.  Bates. 
Pp.  554.  6^4  x  9l/2  inches.  New  York  :  The 
Technical  Literature  Co.  1907. 


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453 


Photo  and  copyright  by  Edward  S.  Curtis 
NESJAJA    HATAU:    NAVAHO 


454         THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


Photo  and  copyright  by  Edward  S.  Curtis 


LUZI:  PAPAGO 


BOOKS  RECEIVED 


455 


anama.  A  personal  record  of  forty-six  years, 
1861-1907.  By  Tracy  Robinson.  Pp.  282. 
524  x  Sy2  inches.  Illustrated.  New  York  :  The 
Star  and  Herald  Co.  1907. 

A  Satchel  Guide  to  Europe.  For  the. vacation 
tourist  in  Europe.  A  compact  itinerary  of 
the  British  Isles,  Belgium,  Holland,  Germany 
and  the  Rhine,  Switzerland,  France,  Austria, 
and  Italy.  By  W.  J.  Rolfe.  Pp.  308.  $l/2  x 
6^4  inches.  Maps.  Boston :  Houghton,  Miff- 
lin  &  Co.  37th  edition.  1908.  $1.50. 

Atlas  of  European  History.  By  Earle  W. 
Dow.  Pp.  46.  Jl/2  x  10%  inches.  New  York  : 
Henry  Holt  &  Co.  1907. 

Over-sea  Britain.  A  descriptive  record  of  the 
geography,  the  historical,  ethnological,  and 
political  development  and  the  economic  re- 
sources of  the  empire.  By  E.  F.  Knight. 
Pp.  324.  524  x  8%  inches.  Maps.  New  York  : 
E.  P.  Button  Co.  1907.  $2.00. 

An  Englishwoman  in  the  Philippines.  By 
Mrs  Campbell  Dauncy.  Pp.  350.  6xQ 
inches.  Illustrated.  New  York:  E.  P.  But- 
ton &  Co.  1906.  $3.50. 

Highways  and  Byways  in  Kent.  By  Walter 
Jerrold.  Pp.  447.  $*%  x  8  inches.  Illustrated. 
New  York  :  Macmillan  &  Co.  1907. 

London  Parks  and  Gardens.  By  Hon.  Mrs 
Evelyn  Cecil.  Pp.  384.  6l/2  x  10^  inches. 
Illustrated.  New  York :  E.  P.  Button  &  Co. 
1907.  $6.00  net. 

Seeing  England  with  Uncle  John.  By  Anne 
Warner.  Pp.  492.  7%  x  5%  inches.  Illus- 
trated. New  York:  The  Century  Co.  1908. 
$1.50. 

Notes  Upon  the  Island  of  Bominica.  (British 
West  Indies.)  Containing  information  for 
settlers,  investors,  tourists,  naturalists,  and 
others.  By  Symington  Grieve.  Pp.  126. 
7^  x  5  inches.  Illustrated.  New  York : 
Macmillan  Co.  1906. 

Ancient  Italy.  Historical  and  geographical 
investigations  in  Central  Italy,  Magna  Grsecia, 
Sicily,  and  Sardinia.  By  Ettore  Pais.  Trans- 
lated from  the  Italian  by  C.  Bensmore  Cur- 
tis. Pp.  441.  6l/4  x  gY2  inches.  Illustrated. 
Chicago :  The  University  Press.  1908.  $5.00. 

Through  Italy  with  Car  and  Camera.  By 
Ban  Fellow  Platt.  Pp.  486.  6l/4  x  9  inches. 
Illustrated.  New  York:  G.  P.  Putnam's 
Sons.  1908. 

Lands  of  Summer.  Sketches  in  Italy,  Sicily, 
and  Greece.  By  T.  R.  Sullivan.  Pp.  249. 
5/4  x  7%  inches.  Illustrated.  Boston: 
Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.  1908.  $1.50. 

Three  Weeks  in  Holland  and  Belgium.     By 

John  U.  Higinbotham.  Pp.  275.  5x  7% 
inches.  Illustrated.  Chicago :  The  Reilly  & 
Britton  Co.  1008. 

The  Tragedy  of  Russia  in  Pacific  Asia.  By 
Frederick  McCormick.  2  volumes.  Vol.  i, 
PP-  435 ;  vol.  2,  pp.  479-  6^  x  9%  inches. 


Illustrated.  New  York:  Outing  Publishing 
Co.  1907.  $6!oo  net. 

The  Russian  Peasant.  By  Howard  P.  Ken- 
nard.  Pp.  302.  7%  x  5*4  inches.  Illustrated. 
Philadelphia :  J.  B.  Lippincott  &  Co.  1908. 

Leon,  Burgos  and  Salamanca.  A  historical 
and  descriptive  account.  By  Albert  F.  Cal- 
yert.  Pp.  151  and  462  illustrations.  7%  x  Sl/z 
inches.  New  York  :  John  Lane  &  Co.  1908. 

The  Soul  of  Spain.  By  Havelock  Ellis.  Pp. 
420.  5%  x  9  inches.  Boston :  Houghton, 
Mifflin  &  Co.  1908.  $2.00. 

In  Korea  with  Marquis  Ito.  By  George 
Trumbull  Ladd.  Pp.  477.  524x8^4  inches. 
Part  I,  A  narrative  of  personal  experiences. 
Part  II,  A  critical  and  historical  inquiry. 
Illustrated.  New  York:  Charles  Scribner's 
Sons.  1908.  $2.50. 

Benares:  The  Sacred  City.  Sketches  of 
Hindu  life  and  religion.  By  E.  B.  Havell. 
Pp.  226.  9x6}4  inches.  Illustrated.  1905. 

Wanderings  in  Arabia.  By  Charles  M. 
Boughty.  Being  an  abridgement  of  "Travels 
in  Arabia  Beserts."  2  volumes.  Vol.  I,  pp. 
309;  vol.  2,  pp.  292.  9x6  inches.  Imported. 
New  York:  Charles  Scribner's  Sons.  1908. 

Ice-bound  Heights  of  the  Mustagh.  An  ac- 
count of  two  seasons  of  pioneer  exploration 
and  high  climbing  in  the  Baltistan  Himalaya. 
By  Fanny  Bullock  Workman  and  William 
Hunter  Workman.  Illustrated.  Pp.  444. 
9^2  x  6y2  inches.  Imported  by  Charles  Scrib- 
ner's Sons.  1908. 

White  Man's  Work  in  Asia  and  Africa.  A 
discussion  of  the  main  difficulties  of  the 
color  question.  By  Leonard  Alston.  Pp. 
136-  5/4  *71A  inches.  New  York:  Long- 
mans, Green  &  Co.  1907. 

In  the  Land  of  Mosques  and  Minarets.  By 
Francis  Miltoun.  Pp.  442.  8J4  x  524  inches. 
Illustrated.  Boston :  L.  C.  Page  &  Co.  1908. 
$3.00. 

Today  in  Palestine.  By  H.  W.  Bunning.  Pp. 
278.  $5/s  x  S1A  inches.  Illustrated.  New 
York :  James  Pott  &  Co.  1907.  $2.50. 

From  the  Niger  to  the  Nile.  By  Boyd  Alex- 
ander. 2  volumes.  Vol.  i,  pp.  358;  vol.  2, 
pp.  420.  7^4  x  g1/*,  inches.  Illustrated.  New 
York :  Longmans,  Green  &  Co,  1907. 

Boing  Over.  *  A  tour  eastward  around  the 
world,  January  to  August,  1906.  By  F.  M. 
Huschart.  Pp.  318.  5^x7^  inches.  Illus- 
trated. Cincinnati:  The  Robert  Clarke  Co. 
1907.  $2.00  net. 

From  West  to  East.  By  Sir  Hubert  Jerning- 
ham.  Pp.  351.  6x8^4  inches.  Illustrated. 
New  York :  E.  P.  Button.  1007.  $4.00. 

Climate.  Considered  especially  in  relation  to 
man.  By  Robert  BeCoursey  Ward.  Pp.  372- 
524  x  8>l/2  inches.  Illustrated  with  diagrams. 
New  York:  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons.  1908. 
$2.00  net. 


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The  Complete  Mountaineer.  By  George  D. 
Abraham.  Pp.  492.  9x6  inches.  New 
York:  Doubleday,  Page  &  Co.  1908.  $4.80. 

Race  Life  of  the  Aryan  Peoples.  By  Joseph 
P.  Widney.  2  volumes.  Volume  I,  The  Old 
World,  pp.  347;  volume  2,  The  New  World, 
PP-  359-  6  x  9^4  inches.  New  York  :  Funk 
&  Wagnalls  Co.  1907.  $4.00. 

The  Mongols.  By  Jeremiah  Curtin.  Fore- 
word by  Theodore  Roosevelt.  Pp.  412.  6*4 
x9^4  inches.  Boston:  Little,  Brown  &  Co. 
1908.  $3.00. 

The  World's  Peoples.  A  popular  account  of 
their  bodily  and  mental  characters, ^beliefs, 
traditions,  political  and  social  institutions. 
By  A.  H.  Keane.  Pp.  434.  5^x8  inches. 
Illustrated.  New  York:  G.  P.  Putnam's 
Sons.  1908. 

History  of  Ancient  Civilization.  By  Charles 
Seignobos.  Translated  and  edited  by  Arthur 
Herbert  Wilde.  With  an  introduction  by 
James  Alton  James.  Pp.  373.  5^/4  x  7% 
inches.  New  York :  Charles  Scribner's  Sons. 
1906. 

Worlds  in  the  Making.  The  evolution  of  the 
universe.  By  Svante  Arrhenius.  Translated 
by  Dr  H.  Borns.  Pp.  230.  S1A  x  &A  inches. 
New  York :  Harper  &  Brothers.  1908.  $1.60. 

The  Bird  Our  Brother.  By  Olive  Thome 
Miller.  Pp.  331.  5x7^  inches.  Boston : 
Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.  1908.  $1.25. 

Big  Game  at  Sea.  By  Charles  F.  Holder.  Pp. 
352.  55A  x  8^  inches.  Illustrated.  New 
York:  The  Outing  Publishing  Co.  1908. 

The  Solar  System.  A  study  of  recent  obser- 
vations. By  Charles  Lane  Poor.  Pp.  310. 
524x6^  inches.  Illustrated.  New  York: 
G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons.  1908. 

Astronomy  with  the  Naked  Eye.  A  new 
geography  of  the  heavens.  With  descriptions 
and  charts  of  constellations,  stars,  and 
planets.  By  Garrett  P.  Serviss.  Pp.  247. 
8J4  x  5*4  inches.  New  York :  Harper  & 
Brothers.  1908.  $1.40. 

Mine  Gases  and  Explosions.  Text-book  for 
schools  and  colleges  and  for  general  refer- 
ence. By  J.  T.  Beard.  Pp.  402.  5^x8 
inches.  New  York:  John  Wiley  &  Sons. 
1908.  $3.00. 

Maury-Simonds  Physical  Geography.  By 
M.  F.  Maury.  Revised  and  largely  rewritten 
by  Frederic  William  Simonds.  Pp.  347. 
8^  x  5%  inches.  Maps  and  illustrations. 
New  York :  American  Book  Company.  $1.20. 

Life  and  Letters  of  Herbert  Spencer.  By 
David  Duncan.  2  volumes.  Vol.  i,  pp.  414; 
vol.  2,  pp.  444.  Sy2  x  534  inches.  New  York : 
D.  Appleton  &  Co.  1908.  $5.00. 


Three  Voyages  of  a  Naturalist.  Being  an  ac- 
count of  many  little  known  islands  in  three 
oceans  visited  by  the  "Valhalla,"  R.  Y.  S. 
By  M.  J.  Nicoll.  Pp.  246.  8^x6  inches. 
New  York:  Charles  Scribner's  Sons.  1908. 

Fishes.  By  David  Starr  Jordan.  Pp.  771. 
io^4  x  7J/2  inches.  Illustrated.  New  York  : 
Henry  Holt  &  Co.  1907. 

The  China  or  Denny  Pheasant  in  Oregon. 
With  notes  on  the  native  grouse  of  the  Pa- 
cific Northwest.  By  William  T.  Shaw.  Pp. 
24.  6l/2  x  9  inches.  Illustrated.  Philadel- 
phia :  J.  B.  Lippincott  Co.  1908.  $1.50. 

Trees  in  Nature,  Myth  and  Art.  By  J.  Ernest 
Phythian.  Pp.  302.  5%  x  72/4  inches.  Illus- 
trated. Philadelphia:  George  W.  Jacobs  & 
Co. 

Our  Trees.  How  to  know  them.  By  Arthur 
I.  Emerson.  With  a  guide  to  their  recog- 
nition at  any  season  of  the  year,  and  notes 
on  their  characteristics,  distribution,  and  cul- 
ture. By  Clarence  M.  Weed.  Pp.  295. 
10  x  7^4  inches.  Illustrated.  Philadelphia  : 
J.  B.  Lippincott  Co.  1908.  $3.00. 

Trees  and  Shrubs.  Illustrations  of  little- 
known  ligneous  plants.  Edited  by  Charles 
Sprague  Sargent.  Vol.  2,  Part  II.  New 
York  :  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.  1908. 

Studies  in  the  Family  Orchidaceae.  Issuing 
from  the  Ames  Botanical  Laboratory,  North 
Easton,  Massachusetts.  Fascicle  II.  By 
Oakes  Ames.  Pp.  288.  7*4  x  10%  inches.  Il- 
lustrated. New  York.:  Houghton,  Mifflin  & 
Co.  1908.  $3.00  net. 

The  World's  Commercial  Products.  A  de- 
scriptive account  of  the  economic  plants  of 
the  world  and  their  commercial  uses.  By 
W.  G.  Freeman,  S.  E.  Chandler,  T.  A.  Henry, 
C.  E.  Jones,  and  E.  H.  Wilson.  Pp.  391. 
11x8^4  inches.  Illustrated.  New  York  : 
Ginn  &  Co.  $3.50. 

Airships,  Past  and  Present.  Together  with 
chapters  on  the  use  of  balloons  in  connection 
with  meteorology,  photography,  and  the  car- 
rier pigeon.  By  A.  Hildebrandt.  Translated 
by  W.  H.  Story.  Pp.  361.  6^  x  9^  inches. 
Illustrated.  New  York :  D.  Van  Nostrand 
Co.  1908. 

Log  of  the  "Laura"  in  Polar  Seas.  A  hunt- 
ing cruise  from  Tromso,  Norway,  to  Spits- 
bergen, the  polar  ice  off  East  Greenland,  and 
the  island  of  Jan  Mayen,  in  the  summer  of 
1906.  By  Bettie  Fleischmann  Holmes.  Pp. 
137-  7^  xii  inches.  Illustrated.  Chicago: 
The  University  Press.  1907. 

Scientific  American  Reference  Book.  Com- 
piled by  Albert  A.  Hopkins  and  A.  Russell 
Bond.  Pp.  516.  8x5^  inches.  New  York: 
Munn  &  Co.  1906. 


VOL.  XIX,  No.  7 


WASHINGTON 


JULY,  1908 


Photo, 


THE   MAGIC    MOUNTAIN 

BY  J.   N.   PATTERSON 


holographs  by  Professor  Ferdinand  Ellerman,  of  Carnegie  Institute  Solar  Ob- 
servatory, Mount    Wilson 


IN  Mount  Wilson,  the  home  of  the 
great  Carnegie  Institute  Solar  Ob- 
servatory, Los  Angeles  and  vicin- 
ity possesses  what  may  be  justly  termed 
the  greatest  pleasure  mountain  of  any 
populous  section  of  the  globe. 

Towering  at  an  altitude  of  6,000  feet 
above  Pasadena,  Los  Angeles,  and  the 
many  towns  and  verdant  ranches  of  the 
San  Gabriel  Valley,  this  remarkable 
mountain  has  gained  distinction  in  the 
world  of  science  as  the  destined  home  of 
the  largest  lens  in  existence.  But  it  has 
other  claims  which  need  no  astronomical 
art  to  reveal,  and  which,  while  enchant- 
ing the  eye  of  the  world-traveled  tourist, 
are  of  greatest  value  to  the  vast  area  of 
homes  whose  scintillating  fairyland  of 
lights  this  sentinel  of  the  Sierra  Madre 
nightly  overlooks. 

It  is  doubtful  whether  as  great  a  vari- 
ety of  appealing  views  can  be  enjoyed 
from  any  other  mountain  of  the  world, 
but  it  is  the  wonderful  accessibility  of 
Mount  Wilson  to  the  thousands  of  beach 
and  valley  homes  outspread  beneath  its 
pine-clad  summit  and  the  remarkable 
climatic  and  physiographic  change  pos- 
sible within  half  a  day  that  makes  it  "the 
magic  mountain"  in  the  people's  fancy. 


A  change  of  mind  at  breakfast  and  a 
change  of  speed  at  Sierra  Madre  from 
the  Pacific  Electric  of  the  city  to  the 
"Burro"  Pacific  of  the  trail,  arid  the  resi- 
dent of  Los  Angeles  is  able  to  eat  lunch- 
eon over  a  mile  nearer  the  heavens ;  may 
look  out  upon  a  sea  of  clouds,  darkening 
the  city  below,  and  at  night  may  see  the 
glow  of  the  light  by  which  the  ones  at 
home  are  reading. 

A  plunge  in  the  Pacific  and  snow- 
balling and  sled-riding  before  night  has 
become  such  a  common  story  with  resi- 
dents of  this  favored  district  as  to  excite 
no  comment,  and  at  night  they  can  pick 
out  the  several  buildings  of  the  beach  re- 
sorts over  forty  miles  away  by  rail,  find- 
ing it  hard  to  realize  that  they  were  there 
but  a  few  hours  previous. 

There  is  practically  no  end  to  the  vari- 
ety of  wild  mountain  and  canyon  scenery 
offered  by  the  Mount  Wilson  trip,  but 
there  are  four  general  panoramic  views 
which  arouse  the  enthusiasm  of  the  vis- 
itor, and  each  of  distinctly  different 
nature. 

Looking  to  the  south,  a  hundred-mile 
vista  of  valley,  ocean,  and  shoreline  re- 
veals the  buildings  of  Los  Angeles  and 
Pasadena  flashing  in  the  sunlight,  the 


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distant  Catalina,  San  Nicholas,  and 
Santa  Barbara  Islands,  the  mountain 
and  coast  landmarks  of  San  Diego  and 
the  country  to  the  east,  where  flourish 
Pomona  and  Ontario. 

On  clear  days  the  line  of  the  breakers 
as  they  play  upon  the  beach  has  been 
discerned  by  the  naked  eye,  the  arrival 
of  the  Catalina  boat  at  San  Pedro  harbor 
noted,  and  on  a  few  exceptional  morn- 
ings the  buildings  on  Catalina  have  been 
visible,  60  miles  away. 

Looking  to  the  north,  vast  ranges  of 
rugged  mountains  in  the  immensity  of 
their  trembling  bareness  suggest  to  the 
mind  the  upheaval  of  the  earth's  crea- 
tion, and  with  a  skyline  of  eight  to 
eleven  thousand  feet  stand  between  the 
eye  and  the  Mojave  Desert  beyond. 

The  magnificent  watershed  of  the  San 
Gabriel  River  stretching  away  to  the  east 
is  a  foreground  for  the  majestic  white- 
ness of  San  Antonio  ("Old  Baldy"),and 
farther  eastward  San  Gargonia  ("Gray- 
back"),  San  Bernardino,  and  San  Ja- 
cinto  are  prominent  landmarks. 

Directly  back  of  Mount  Wilson  to  the 
north  the  West  Fork  of  the  San  Gabriel 
River  finds  its  source  in  the  bottom  of  a 
gigantic  bowl,  the  three-thousand-foot 
sides  of  which,  under  the  softening 
touches  of  a  waning  sun,  make  a  dream- 
like picture  not  soon  forgotten,  calling 
as  from  another  world  to  the  tired-out 
worker  but  a  few  hours  removed  from 
the  turmoil  of  Los  Angeles. 

The  rush  of  the  tumbling  WTest  Fork 
can  be  heard  on  Mount  Wilson,  and  in 
summer  this  back  country  is  a  favorite 
camping  ground  for  those  who  wish  to 
lose  themselves  from  civilization  and 
burn  their  bridges  behind.  The  mail, 
the  telephone,  and  the  telegraph  are  of 
another  world ;  the  use  of  the  razor  is 
tabooed ;  the  daily  packing  and  driving 
the  burro  is  the  only  problem  of  life,  and 
the  business  man  returns  to  civilization 
in  such  a  happy  state  of  carelessness  that 
he  is  passed  on  the  streets  unrecognized 
by  his  nearest  friends. 

Except  for  patches  of  woods  here  and 
there  and  streaks  of  green  in  the  canyon 
bottoms,  these  gigantic  heaps  of  brown- 


ness  look  as  dry  as  the  desert,  but  there 
are  ever-flowing  springs  to  be  found  on 
the  highest  ridges,  and  trails  lead 
through  the  most  impossible  looking  re- 
gions. 

Covered  with  sugar  pines,  bearing 
giant  cones  over  a  foot  long,  Barley 
Flats  and  Pine  Flats  are  two  of  the  en- 
chanted regions  which  beckon  to  the 
Mount  Wilson  Hotel  guest,  leading  him 
yet  a  step  farther  from  civilization.  Both 
are  well  watered  at  an  altitude  of  over 
6,000  feet,  are  covered  with  wild  barley, 
and  are  reached  by  the  roughest  sort  of 
mountain  trails. 

Gently  rolling  over  the  semi-flat  coun- 
try of  this  high  ridge,  the  green  carpet 
and  pine  grove  of  Barley  Flats  are  so 
entirely  different  from  the  steep  and 
rugged  bareness  of  the  surrounding 
country  that  the  imagination  seems  to 
lift  one  into  another  country,  and  one 
half  expects  to  see  the  fairy  prince  of 
nursery  days  ride  forth  in  gorgeous  trap- 
pings and  blowr  a  blast  upon  his  trumpet. 

This  picturesque  spot  really  has  its  ro- 
mance in  "The  Horse  Thieves  of  Barley 
Flats."  These  hardy  outlaws  of  days 
gone  by  are  reported  to  have  operated 
between  the  Mexican  border  and  San 
Francisco,  using  this  well-watered  grove 
of  pines,  commanding  an  extended  view 
on  all  sides  of  any  possible  approach,  as 
one  of  their  feeding  stations. 

The  grain  which  the  stolen  horses 
didn't  eat  is  supposed  to  be  responsible 
for  the  fine  crop  of  volunteer  barley 
which  is  now  enjoyed  by  the  hardv  little 
burros  of  the  Mount  Wilson  Hotel  Com- 
pany, for  Barley  Flats,  which  is  in  the 
government  reserve,  is  leased  as  a  fall 
and  winter  pasturage  when  the  absence 
of  the  summer  colony  lessens  the  need  of 
trail  animals. 

The  burros  are  counted  daily  by  tele- 
scope from  the  hotel,  and  if  any  do  not 
answer  to  roll-call  a  rider  is  dispatched 
to  see  whether  a'  mountain  lion  is  at 
large.  When  the  heavy  snow  comes,  the 
burros  are  brought  back  to  civilization, 
the  rescue  expeditions  having  a  tough 
time  battling  with  the  snow-drifts. 

The  record  fall   of  eight  feet  in  Jan- 


THE  MAGIC  MOUNTAIN 


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t_(    .  „ 

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uary,  1907,  caught  the  hotel  people  un- 
awares, and  a  dozen  of  the  patient  toilers 
of  the  trail  perished  before  the  relief  ex- 
pedition could  break  its  way  through. 

When  a  sea  of  fog  is  hiding  the  sun 
from  the  valley  beneath  and  the  peaks 
around  Mount  Wilson  are  revealed  as 
islands  in  the  midst  of  a  vast  ocean,  it  is 
hard  to  recall  the  extensive  valley  and 
ocean  panorama  of  a  few  hours  previous, 
when  the  green  checker-board  squares  of 
cultivated  ranches  and  the  white  smoke 
of  the  locomotive  colored  the  broad  level 
of  the  landscape.  Mount  Harvard, 
closely  joined  to  Mount  Wilson  by  a  sad- 
dle and  well  wooded  with  spruce  on  the 
near  side,  lends  greatest  value  to  the 
cloud  scenes,  while  Mounts  Lowe,  Mark- 
ham,  and  San  Gabriel  rear  their  succes- 
sive elevations  in  one,  two,  three  order 
to  the  west. 

Gradually  lifting  as  the  day  advances, 
the  level  sea  of  fog  will  often  break  into 
the  fluffy  billowyness  of  shifting  clouds 
just  as  the  setting  sun  lends  rose-colored 
tints  of  loveliness.  Pouring  over  the 
connecting  ridges  and  downward  into 
the  canyons  about  Wilson's  Peak  the 
fog,  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  forms 
waterfalls  and  rapids,  and,  filling  into 
the  West  Fork  Valley  across  the  Sierra 
Madre  range,  constructs  beautiful  rivers. 

The  night  view  from  Mount  Wilson  is 
doubtless  unequaled  by  any  other  moun- 
tain of  the  world.  The  star-lit  heavens 
upside  down  is  at  once  suggested  to  the 
amazed  tourist,  who  is  overcome  by  the 
unexpectedness  of  the  sparkling  area  of 
electric  lights  beneath  him.  Pasadena, 
eight  miles  distant  in  an  air  line,  spreads 


her  scintillating  splendor  almost  to  the 
foot  of  the  mountain,  and  is  connected 
by  bands  of  whiteness  with  Los  Angeles 
and  the  nearer  beach  towns  of  Venice, 
Ocean  Park,  and  Santa  Monica.  Long 
Beach  and  San  Pedro,  over  thirty  miles 
away,  are  plainly  revealed,  and  the  loca- 
tion of  over  thirty  cities  and  towns  can 
be  determined  by  their  lights. 

Not  the  least  feature  of  Mount  Wilson 
as  a  pleasure  mountain  for  the  people  of 
Los  Angeles  and  vicinity  is  the  eight- 
mile  trip  by  trail  from  the  old  foothill 
town  of  Sierra  Madre  to  the  peak.  To 
those  accustomed  to  the  dryness  of  the 
valley  and  coast  region,  and  who  have 
their  sole  idea  of  the  mountain  from  the 
bare  southern  face  of  the  range  revealed 
to  the  cities  below,  the  wild  freshness  of 
the  Little  Santa  Anita  Canyon  is  a  won- 
derful surprise. 

The  grateful,  refreshing  sound  of 
tumbling  water  greets  the  ear,  beautiful 
waterfalls  appear  in  the  deep  canyon 
below  the  trail,  the  rocky  banks  are 
green  with  moss  and  ferns,  and  the  plen- 
tiful profusion  of  pine,  spruce,  and 
mountain  oak  is  a  welcome  surprise. 
Deer  have  been  killed  within  two  hours 
of  Los  Angeles,  and  the  wildcat  is  fre- 
quently seen  on  the  trail. 

Whether  the  stubborn  burro  or 
"Shanks'  mare"  is  depended  upon,  the 
excursion  furnishes  one  of  the  most  com- 
plete and  quickest  changes  from  the 
atmosphere  of  civilization  to  be  found 
near  any  large  city  of  the  world.  The 
general  dryness  of  southern  California 
renders  the  transition  all  the  more  no- 
ticeable and  welcome. 


NOTES   ON   A   ZOOLOGICAL   COLLECTING 
TRIP   TO   DUTCH    NEW   GUINEA* 


BY  THOMAS  BAREOUR 

Illustrated  with  photographs  by  the  author. 


NEW  GUINEA,  the  last  great  area 
remaining  in  the  tropics  which 
is  still  almost  completely  un- 
known, has  a  peculiar  charm  for  the  nat- 
uralist. To  be  sure,  its  coasts  have  been, 
and  are  still,  frequently  visited  and  set- 
tlements exist  on  parts  of  the  island,  but 
great  stretches  of  seaboard  still  remain 
unmapped  and  all  but  a  small  part  of  the 
interior  is  a  blank  on  our  charts. 

The  unfamiliarity  of  the  average 
American  with  the  whole  East  Indian 
Island  region,  and  especially  hereabouts, 
will  perhaps  be  an  excuse  for  giving  a 
few  general  facts  regarding  the  island. 
Lying  as  it  does  between  the  Equator  and 
Queensland,  Australia,  its  length  is  about 
1,490  miles  and  its  maximum  breadth  is 
430  miles.  Its  area  is  greater  than  that 
of  Borneo,  being  about  300,000  square 
miles.  Politically  it  is  divided  into  three 
parts. 

The  lower  coasts  bordering  Torres 
Straits  form  British  Papua,  as  it  is  now 
called.  The  eastern  coast  as  far  .as 
140°  47'  east  longitude,  with  a  considera- 
ble hinterland,  goes  to  make  up  Kaiser 
Wilhelms  Land,  or  German  New  Guinea. 
In  both  of  these  districts  there  are  a  con- 
siderable number  of  white  settlements 
and  mission  stations;  and  mining  and 
copra  farming  are  carried  on.  The  great 
western  region  of  Papua  is  Dutch  and  it 
is  of  this  region  that  we  are  dealing 
especially. 

The  Dutch  section  attracts  the  student 
of  zoology,  ethnography,  or  geology  par- 
ticularly. The  presence  of  snow  moun- 
tains, whose  slopes  have  never  yet  been 
trodden  by  white  man's  foot,  conjures  up 
in  the  imagination  endless  dreams  as  to 
what  new  forms  of  life  may  there  await 
a  discoverer.  Several  well-equipped  ex- 
peditions sent  out  by  the  Dutch  scientific 
societies  or  by  the  government  have 


failed  to  even  reach  the  bases  of  these 
mountains. 

Owing  to  the  extremely  unhealthy  cli- 
mate and  the  character  of  the  natives,  the 
Hollanders  have  not  attempted  to  admin- 
ister this  territory  as  the  English  and 
Germans  do  theirs.  Other  island  pos- 
sessions, nearer  at  hand  and  far  more 
valuable  from  every  point  of  view,  have 
done  much  to  retard  the  Papuan  trade, 
and  now  only  a  couple  of  times  a  year  do 
subsidized  trading  vessels  visit  this  coast. 
Three  Residents,  one  stationed  at  Dorey, 
one  at  Fak  Fak,  and  one  at  Merauke, 
each  with  a  small  garrison  of  Javanese 
troops,  serve  to  represent  the  sovereignty 
of  Holland  over  this  vast  region. 

It  is  this  very  absence  of  white  folk 
which  gives  this  land  an  added  inter- 
est, for  here  the  native  may  be  seen  in 
his  primitive  simplicity.  With  such  a  be- 
wildering variety  of  human  types  among 
the  Papuan  tribes,  each  speaking  its  own 
language,  the  ethnologist  has  a  great  field, 
one  which  is  certainly  unexcelled.  The 
writer  has  visited  the  northwest  and  west 
coasts  of  the  island  with  his  wife  and  two 
friends,  who  volunteered  their  aid  in  col- 
lecting, and  Chinese  and  Javanese 
helpers. 

Leaving  Soerabaia,  in  Java,  a  long  and 
beautiful  sail,  with  stops  at  many  is- 
lands almost  as  interesting  as  our  goal, 
brought  us  to  Ternate,  one  of  the  old  set- 
tlements of  the  Moluccas.  Here  the  se- 
ries of  contract  stops  was  about  finished, 
and,  thanks  to  the  kindness  of  officials 
high  in  the  Dutch  Indian  service  and  to 
the  officers  of  the  Koninklijke  Paketvaart 
Maatschappij,  we  started  on  a  number  of 
visits  to  many  villages,  lying  in  bays 
abounding  in  glorious  scenery  and  where 
the  natives  had,  in  some  cases,  seen  no 
white  men  in  several  years.  Mrs  Barbour 
was  always  the  greatest  source  of  inter- 


*  Copyright,  by  Thomas  Barbour,  1908 


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PAPUANS    AMONG    THE   LITTLE    COLONY    OF    TRADERS 

They  are  grouped  about  the  Dutch  Resident's  house  and  the  barracks  for  the  half  com- 
pany of  Javanese  soldiers.  The  man  dressed  is  our  interpreter ;  he  belongs  to  a  different  tribe. 
Dorey,  New  Guinea. 


est,  for,  of  course,  the  only  white  women 
who  had  ever  been  on  this  coast  before 
were  the  wives  of  the  little  band  of  Dutch 
missionaries  who  have  settled  near 
Dorey,  and  these  women  had  only  been 
seen  by  the  Papuans  of  that  immediate 
vicinity.  To  attempt  to  give  a  nominal 
list  of  the  stations  where  collecting  was 
carried  on  would  be  as  uninteresting  as 
futile,  for  the  names  of  many  villages  do 
not  even  occur  on  the  Dutch  Admiralty 
charts. 

No  words,  however,  can  begin  to  do 
justice  to  the  splendid  scenery  of  parts 
of  the  coast.  In  the  Pitt  Passage,  be- 
tween the  islands  of  Salwatty  and  Ba- 
tanta,  steep  wooded  hills  rise  from  the 
sea  on  each  side  of  the  ship.  A  white 
coral  sand  beach  and  an  occasional  house 
perched  on  stilts  in  the  water  complete 
this  scene,  while  over  the  bow  the  coast 
of  Papua  shows  as  a  dim,  low  bank,  as  if 
a  forest  were  growing  from  the  sea. 
The  vegetation  is  rank  in  this  alluvial 


land,  high  timber,  matted  with  creeping 
vines,  covered  with  masses  of  orchids  and 
rising  from  a  bed  of  ferns  being  the  fea- 
ture which  one  encounters  as  soon  as 
shore  is  reached.  We  must  not  forget 
the  birds,  splendid  -iorys,  parrots  of  red 
and  blue  and  green,  white  cockatoos,  and 
gorgeous  pigeons  greet  one's  first  ramble 
ashore. 

MAGNIFICENT    BUTTERFLIES 

It  was  the  writer's  good  luck  on  his 
first  stroll  to  find  a  tree  flowering  high  in 
air  which  was  being  visited  by  a  host  of 
the  splendid  bird-winged  butterflies, 
Ornithoptera  poseidon.  The  feelings  of 
one  who  has  hitherto  only  known  these 
visions  in  black  and  green  and  gold  as 
they  lay  pinned  in  a  cabinet  were  never 
better  expressed  than  by  Wallace,  who 
wrote  in  his  Malay  Archipelago  the  fol- 
lowing, after  he  had  taken  this  species 
in  the  Aru  Islands :  "I  had  the  good  for- 
tune to  capture  one  of  the  most  magnifi- 


DUTCH  NEW  GUINEA 


47 


:  Mariana 
•'  orLadrone 
*  Islands 


C  a  r  0   I   i   n  e         I' 


D    I    A    fit 

O     C     £    A     A/ 


NEW  GUINEA  ORPAPUA 


Pr.nce 
Frederick  Henry  \a 


O  IOO  ZOO  3OO   mi 


472         THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


PAPUAN   WOMEN 

The  women  of  Dorey  are  well  dressed,  mainly  through  the  efforts  of  Mr  van  Hasselt,  for 
43  years  a  missionary  in  Papua.  No  converts  are  made,  except  where  a  few  slaves  are  pur- 
chased and  adopted.  The  only  effects  are  seen  in  the  help  which  modern  medicine  has  been 
to  them;  though  it  must  be  said  that  none  of  these  races  are  ever  as  healthy  as  before  they 
submitted  to  clothing. 


DUTCH  NEW  GUINEA 


473 


cent  insects  the  world  contains,  the  great 
bird-winged  butterfly  (Ornithoptera  po- 
seidon).  I  trembled  with  excitement  as 
I  saw  it  coming  majestically  toward  me, 
and  could  hardly  believe  I  had  really  suc- 
ceeded in  my  stroke  till  I  had  taken  it  out 
of  the  net  and  was  gazing,  lost  in  admira- 
tion, at  the  velvet  black  and  brilliant 
green  of  its  wings,  seven  inches  across, 
its  golden  body,  and  crimson  breast."  At 
Sorong  these  were  flying  very  high,  as 
is  their  wont,  but  by  climbing  the  tree  and 
using  a  small  collecting  gun  and  dust 
shot,  out  of  a  number  brought  down, 
some  almost  perfect  ones  were  obtained. 
Later  we  got  the  chrysalides  and  splendid 
examples  emerged  after  about  thirty 
days. 

In  coming  to  Papua  from  Malasia 
it  is  the  sudden  contrast  in  the  people 
which  makes  the  most  startling  impres- 
sion on  one's  mind.  The  Malay,  grave, 
reserved,  and  dignified,  is  as  unlike  his 
New  Guinean  neighbor  as  a  Chinaman  is 
unlike  a  European.  These  islanders  are 
a  happy,  boisterous  lot  until  some  little 
thing  offends  them,  when  they  at  once 
become  sullen  and  treacherous ;  but  as 
we  had  no  occasion  to  cross  them,  we  got 
along  most  admirably.  They  often  helped 
us  collect  with  real  enthusiasm,  a  set  of 
rude  drawings  of  various  beasts  showing 
them  for  what  we  would  barter. 

Over  all  Dutch  New  Guinea  tobacco, 
or  "sembacoo,"  as  the  natives  call  it,  is 
the  most  sought  for  "trade."  Next  in 
popularity  comes  brass  wire,  then  cloth, 
red  being  demanded  in  some  localities 
and  blue  in  others.  Beads  and  knives 
are  also  most  useful.  The  tobacco  is  put 
up  for  this  trade  in  Rotterdam,  marked 
"The  Rising  Hope"  (in  Dutch),  and  con- 
tained in  a  blue  wrapper;  curiously 
enough  any  other  sort  is  absolutely  re- 
fused by  the  people.  They  smoke  it  and 
chew  it.  They  are  very  fond  of  walking 
up  to  you  and  taking  a  cigar  or  cigarette 
directly  from  your  mouth  and  walking 
away  puff  it  with  perfect  unconcern. 
When  going  ashore  every  article  of  value 
(from  the  Papuan  standpoint)  must  be 
left  behind.  The  conception  of  the  differ- 
!  ence  between  meum  and  teum  is  not  defi- 
|  nite,  and  to  try  to  keep  a  thing  from  a 


native  by  force  is — well,  a  proceeding  of 
doubtful  safety. 

/  In  the  extreme  northwest  of  New 
Guinea  and  on  the  neighboring  island  of 

Waigiu  the  people  are  similar.  Here 
has  taken  place  the  longest  intercourse 
with  the  Malays,  for  until  the  Dutch 
came,  the  Sultan  of  Ternate  was  suzerain 
of  this  part  of  Papua.  There  has  been  a 
mingling  of  blood,  as  is  shown  by  some 
individuals  being  of  a  lighter  color  than 
is  common,  and  also  by  the  occasional  oc- 
currence of  wavy  instead  of  curly  hair. 

The  pure  Papuan  is  very  dark  brown, 
usually  a  well-built,  thick-set  man  of  me- 
dium height.  Occasional  individuals  are 
seen  who  are  slight,  short,  and  who  have 
strongly  marked  Negrito  characteristics. 
These  probably  represent  survivals  of  the 
very  earliest  human  inhabitants  of  the  re- 
gion, as  were  the  Negritos  in  the  Philip- 
pines. Out  on  the  Pacific  coast  toward 
German  territory  the  human  type  is 
markedly  different.  Here  in  varying  de- 
grees we  meet  people  who  have  character- 
istics of  other  island  groups  to  the  east- 
ward, for  there  have  probably  been  acci- 
dental colonizations  along  this  shore  by 
both  Melanesians  proper  and  Polynesi- 
ans. To  attempt  to  describe  these  physi- 
cal types  would  be  beyond  the  writer's 
powers  and  the  scope  of  this  paper;  the 
photographs  serve  to  illustrate  this  point. 
The  houses  which  these  people  build 
are  of  much  interest.  They  are  gener- 
ally well  made,  often  with  attempts  at 
artistic  decoration,  and  always  most  pic- 
turesque. In  the  northwest  the  Malay 
type  prevails.  We  find  each  family  with 
its  own  house.  This  is  placed  on  poles 
out  in  the  water  with  sides  of  "attap,"  or 
pandannus  mat,  and  roof  of  thatch.  This 
thatch  is  made  by  taking  sago  palm  leaves 
and  braiding  the  blades  all  on  one  side  of 
the  midrib.  These  are  then  laid  on  as 
clapboards  would  be.  and  make  an  ex- 
cellent water-tight  roof. 

COMMUNAL    HOUSES 

In  Geelvink  Bay,  at  Dorey,  Roon,  or  on 
Jobi  Island  the  regular  house  is  a  long 
communal  structure.  These  great  "tur- 
tle-back" houses  shelter  from  80  to  TOO 
people.  They  eat  and  sleep  generally  in 


474         THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


a  long  corridor,  which  runs  lengthwise 
through  the  building,  while  on  each  side 
lead  off  small  rooms,  in  which  the  private 
belongings  of  each  family  are  stored. 

The  men  lounge  regularly  on  the  front 
piazza,  often  lying  prone  with  spear  or 
bow  and  arrow  ready  for  any  fish  which 
may  happen  by.  The  people  show  most 
wonderful  skill  in  striking  or  shooting 
into  water ;  they  seem  to  be  able  to  allow 
for  the  refraction  to  a  nicety.  The 
women  work  on  the  back  piazza,  near- 
est the  forest-covered  shore — convenient 
agents  to  spread  the  alarm  should  an  at- 
tack be  made  by  some  marauding  land 
tribe.  The  canoes  are  moored  at  the 
front  of  the  house.  Evidently  the  Pa- 
puan warrior  looks  first  to  his  own 
safety. 

On  Wiak  Island  the  houses  were  of  an- 
other sort;  similar  in  shape,  they  were 
set  in  two  different  positions.  Some  were 
over  the  water,  as  we  had  often  seen  be- 
fore, while  others  were  set  on  high  bam- 
boos among  the  trees  of  the  deep  forest. 
These  houses  were  generally  three- 
roomed,  one  opening  out  on  each  end, 
and  a  third  between  these  having  a  side 
door.  We  saw  little  of  the  people  or 
their  doings.  They  have  a  very  bad  rep- 
utation for  treachery.  The  women  were 
shy,  hiding  always  deep  in  the  bush  and 
our  photos  here  were  very  unsatisfactory. 

Whenever  the  women  came  out  to  meet 
the  ship  along  with  the  men  we  felt  quite 
safe  to  go  ashore  and  wander  at  will 
through  the  deep  pathless  forests ;  but 
here  at  Meosboendi  only  men  came  out 
in  the  canoes,  armed  men  carrying  many 
spears,  bows,  and  quivers  full  of  short 
bone-tipped  arrows.  They  were  drink- 
ing heavily  of  their  home-brewed 
"sagoeir"  and  were  in  a  generally  bad 
frame  of  mind.  A  few  on  shore  stood 
for  their  picture,  but  most  would  not, 
and  the  women  ran  off  helter  skelter  and 
took  refuge  in  their  high  houses. 

On  a  previous  trip  the  captain  of  the 
trading  steamer  was  standing  on  the 
beach  leaning  against  a  tree,  when  a 
Wiak  man  walked  up  and  drove  his  spear 
through  him.  For  some  years  the  Dutch 
government  prohibited  trading  with  these 


people  as  a  measure  of  reprisal,  and  we 
left  safe  and  sound  after  what  was  one 
of  the  first  trips  since  the  ban  had  been 
removed.  At  Korido,  a  village  near 
Meosboendi,  on  Sook  Island,  the  peo- 
ple on  a  previous  trip  had  met  the 
steamer  with  a  shower  of  spears.  No 
trading  by  white  people  has  ever  been 
done  here  and  we  did  not  attempt  a  land- 
ing. That  an  occasional  Malay  trading 
prau  gets  this  far  was  testified  by  the  fact 
that  many  of  the  Papuan  had  spear- 
heads of  iron,  shaped  as  are  the  spear- 
heads of  the  Buginese  Malays  about 
Makassar. 

From  Wiak  it  is  a  short  journey  to 
Jobi  Island,  another  of  the  group  which 
lies  in  the  mouth  of  Geelvink  Bay.  The 
people  here  vary  little  in  appearance  from 
the  other  Papuans  of  the  region,  but 
their  manners  and  customs  differ  much 
from  village  to  village.  Indeed,  while 
this  island  is  hardly  larger  than  Long 
Island,  New  York,  eleven  mutually  un- 
intelligible languages  are  spoken  on  it. 
Many  feuds  exist,  and  when  our  ship 
came  to  anchor  in  Pom  Bay,  canoes  at- 
tracted by  the  smoke  and  which  had 
come  from  neighboring  harbors  did  not 
spend  the  night  even  close  to  the  ship, 
because  their  occupants  were  afraid  of 
the  people  of  Pom. 

In  the  houses  here  a  goodly  number 
of  heads  were  seen,  the  products  of  re- 
cent raids.  In  one  house  we  tried  to 
barter  for  some  of  these,  but  through  a 
man  who  could  speak  Malay  we  learned 
that,  as  the  possessors  claimed,  these 
people  whose  heads  we  saw  had  been 
such  notorious  villains  that  the  Dutch 
gunboat  last  seen  had  brought  permission 
for  this  tribe  to  go  and  kill  them.  Of 
course,  their  heads  must  be  kept  as  proof 
of  the  meritorious  act.  No  gunboat  had , 
visited  the  bay  for  years !  The  heads ! 
were  fresh. 

CANOES 

The  raiding  canoes  of  Pom  were  enor- 
mous affairs,  with  bows  decorated  with 
fretwork  carving,  in  elaborate  designs, 
and  with  wooden  heads  which  were  made 
to  look  like  real  ones,  by  having  enor- 


DUTCH  NEW  GUINEA 


475 


(/>  o 


S  g.s 


< 


«      «*, 

1 


g  £<£ 

»  rt  *^ 

t/3  "O   >» 

fc  5  h 


476         THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


A    PAPUAN    OF   DOREY 

In  his  hair  may  be  seen  the  ends  of  the  prongs  of  a  hair  comb,  which  is  made  from  the 
wing  spines  of  the  cassowary.  Notice  the  space  between  the  great  and  second  toe.  For  ladders, 
poles  are  used  in  which  notches  are  cut  for  the  toes. 


DUTCH  NEW  GUINEA 


477 


ONE   OF   OUR   BEST    PAPUAN    HELPERS   AT   DOREY 

This  man  was  a  good  collector  and  may  be  seen  here  proudly  displaying  his  pay.  A 
knife,  a  tin  can,  and  a  key  on  a  string  he  was  almost  as  proud  of  as  of  his  splendid  head  of 
hair  and  the  decorated  bone  pin  which  he  had  thrust  through  his  nose. 


478          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


MEN   OF  DOREY 


The  man  on  the  right  has  in  his  hair  the  comb  which  is  in  general  use  among  all  Papuans. 
It  resembles  a  long-tined  fork  and  is  made  of  split  bamboo,  or  more  often  of  the  long  spine- 
like  feathers,  which  are  found  on  the  side  of  the  cassowary  where  most  birds  have  wings. 


DUTCH  NEW  GUINEA 


479 


THE  END  VIEW  OF  A  COMMUNAL    LONG  HOUSE    NEAR  DOREY 

The  decoration  on  the  end  shows  the  space  for  the  separate  rooms.  The  corridor  through 
the  middle  of  the  house  is  the  common  lounging  place.  One  wonders  how  it  is  possible  to  use 
the  bridge ;  the  poles  roll  about  and  there  is  no  hand  rail ;  still  it  is  done,  and  even  by  young 
children. 


4.80         THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


PAPUAN   CHILDREN 


The  children  are  at  home  in  the  water  at  a  very  early  age.    They  often  paddle  about  alone  in 

tiny  dug-out  canoes  of  their  own 


mpus  mops  made  of  cassowary  feathers 
stuck  to  them. 

A  word  about  New  Guinean  canoes  is 
in  order  here.  They  vary  among  the  dif- 
ferent tribes  as  do  all  the  other  products 
of  their  handicraft.  In  some  places  they 
have  a  single  outrigger,  in  others  two. 
At  Djamna  and  the  Humboldt  Bay  they 
are  elaborately  decorated  with  figures 
at  bow  and  stern,  and  often  with  conven- 
tional designs  burned  on  the  hull  repre- 
senting sharks  and  flying  fishes.  Here 
again  the  photos  show  better  than  verbal 
descriptions  the  way  these  crafts  are  put 
together  and  their  varying  types.  The 
basis  of  all  is  a  great  hollow  log  prepared 
with  fire,  and  often  still  with  the  primi- 
tive stone  axe.  To  the  sides  of  this  are 
sewn  two  strips  of  wood,  which  go  to 
form  the  gunwales.  In  almost  every 
case  where  the  canoes  are  sailed,  sails 
made  of  woven  pandannus  leaves  are 
used.  A  tripod  generally  serves  as  a 
mast  among  the  Geelvink  Bay  islands. 
The  paddles  of  this  region  are  short-han- 
dled and  devoid  of  ornamentation,  while 
at  Humboldt  Bay  they  are  long,  so  that  a 
man  may  paddle  standing.  Here  also 
they  are  often  most  beautifully  carved. 

For  weapons  the  bow  and  arrow  are 
general.  In  some  places  they  are  as  elab- 


orate as  human  ingenuity  can  devise,  the 
arrow  shafts  decorated  with  burned  and 
incised  designs,  ornamented  with  tufts  of 
feathers,  often  from  the  Birds  of  Para- 
dise, and  with  tips  of  bone  or  burnt 
wood.  These  tips  are  elaborately  carved 
with  many  series  of  barbs  and  are  cer- 
tainly savage-looking  weapons. 

They  are  not  knowingly  poisoned,  but 
we  are  told  that  they  are  thrust  into  the 
body  of  a  dead  warrior  and  left  to  absorb 
some  of  his  valor.  The  valor  is  doubt- 
less most  effective  in  causing  in  this  damp 
equatorial  climate  swift  and  sure  blood- 
poisoning. 

Spears  are  often  used,  as  well  as  ar- 
rows. Some  are  bamboo,  like  great 
cheese  scoops,  while  others  are  tipped 
with  human  bones  or  the  shin-bones  of 
cassowaries.  Shields  occur  sporadically 
and  not  many  of  the  tribes  in  Dutch  terri- 
tory know  of  them.  The  people  of  Wiak 
make  them  long  and  narrow  for  parry- 
ing; they  have  crude  designs  daubed  on 
them  with  native  pigments,  and  on  top 
they  are  surmounted  with  a  grinning  face 
and  mop  of  cassowary  feathers  for  hair. 
Daggers  are  only  known  in  Humboldt 
Bay.  They  are  made  of  thigh  bones, 
usually,  splintered  to  a  sharp  point  on 
one  end,  with  the  other  end  worked 


DUTCH  NEW  GUINEA 


PAPUAN  CANOES 

The  people  rest  themselves  by  folding  up;  they  never  sit  as  we  do.     Note  the  tripod   for 

holding  the  mast 


smooth  for  a  handle.  They  also  are 
often  beautifully  carved. 

The  artistic  sense  of  these  people  is 
strongly  developed,  and  the  amount  of 
time  and  pains  which  will  be  spent  in 
decorating  every  gourd  or  joint  of  bam- 
boo for  household  use  is  astonishing. 
Their  tools,  of  course,  are  the  most  prim- 
itive, for  of  metals  most  of  them  know 
nothing. 

The  religious  life  of  the  people  is  still 
very  imperfectly  known ;  here  again  a 
great  field  awaits  the  student  of  ethnol- 
ogy. Their  methods  of  burial  vary 
greatly  and  are  interesting,  to  us  often 


disgusting.  These  subjects,  along  with 
an  account  of  the  little-known  tribes  at 
Djamna  and  Humboldt  Bay,  will  be 
touched  on  in  a  subsequent  paper.*  The 
author  will  feel  that  he  has  been 
more  than  repaid  for  the  discomforts  of 
this  trip  if  he  has  awakened  an  interest 
among  Americans  in  this  wonderful  re- 
gion— a  country  which,  in  spite  of  draw- 
backs in  its  climate,  its  notorious  un- 
healthiness,  and  its  often  rather  inhos- 
pitable or  even  dangerous  inhabitants, 
will  always  remain  the  most  interesting 
region  he  has  ever  visited. 


*To  be  published  in  the  August  number  of  this  Magazine. 


482          THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


JOBI    ISLAND    WOMEN 

Photograph  taken  from  the  ship's  deck.     It  was  a  sign  of  great  confidence  for  the  women  to 
come  so  near;  they  are  generally  most  shy 


DUTCH  NEW  GUINEA 


483 


484         THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


ONE;  OF  THE  SURLY  MEN  OF  MEOSBOENDI,  WIAK  ISLAND 

In  the  boxes  was  the  dammar  gum  which  these  people  collect  and  which  the  ship's  crew 
pack  up  and  take  on  board  after  it  has  been  paid  for  in  "trade."  These  people  are  one  of  the 
most  dangerous  in  the  whole  region  to  have  any  dealings  with. 


AMONG  THE  MAHOGANY  FORESTS  OF  CUBA 


BY  WALTER  D.  WILCOX 

AUTHOR    OF    "CAMPING    IN   THE   CANADIAN    ROCKIES," 

CANADA,"  ETC. 


THE    ROCKIES   OF 


THE  Bay  of  Cochinos,  on  the  south 
coast  of  Cuba,  is  about  forty 
miles  west  of  Cienfuegos.  It  is 
the  largest  protected  bay  in  Cuba,  with  a 
length  of  over  15  miles  and  an  average 
breadth  of  about  four  miles,  great  depth 
of  water,  and  very  fair  protection  from 
the  sea,  and  it  is  surprising  at  the  first 
glance  not  to  find  a  thriving  port  town 
located  here.  On  the  contrary,  this  is 
one  of  the  wildest  and  most  sparsely 
populated  parts  of  Cuba. 

Until  within  a  few  years  this  bay  was 
said  to  be  the  resort  of  brigands  and  bad 
characters  of  all  kinds ;  the  waters  were 
supposedly  infested  with  sharks  and 
other  dangerous  fish  and  the  shores  with 
crocodiles,  while  the  swampy  interior -was 
the  reputed  breeding  place  of  innumera- 
ble mosquitoes.  The  days  of  piracy  are 
past,  and  while  crocodiles  and  sharks  do 
abound,  no  fatalities  have  ever  occurred. 

The  isolation  of  this  region,  to  which 
may  be  attributed  the  vagueness  of  these 
evil  reports,  is  due  to  the  fact  that  this 
entire  coast  is  hemmed  in  by  a  line  of  al- 
most impassable  swamps  more  than  fifty 
miles  in  length,  called  the  Cienaga  de 
Zapata,  which  cut  off  communication 
with  the  interior.  Then,  too,  the  com- 
paratively new  city  of  Cienfuegos,  situ- 
ated on  its  beautiful  land-locked  bay, 
which  Humboldt  pronounced  one  of  the 
most  magnificent  harbors  in  the  world, 
has  served  as  an  outlet  for  the  adjoining 
region. 

In  connection  with  the  purchase  of  a 
timber  tract  on  this  bay,  I  had  abundant 
opportunities  to  learn  many  interesting 
facts  about  the  region.  On  the  first  visit 
a  small  boat  was  engaged  to  sail  from 
Cienfuegos.  Under  the  influence  of  a 
fresh  land  breeze,  the  forty  miles  west- 
ward along  the  rocky  coast  were  run  in 
the  night,  and  early  the  following  morn- 
ing the  boat  was  well  within  the  Bay  of 


Cochinos  and  approaching  a  low,  flat 
shore  covered  by  a  uniform  expanse  of 
green  forest.  Above  the  tree-tops  the 
sky  was  a  rosy  red  in  the  early  dawn.  It 
was  a  typical  midwinter  day  in  the 
tropics — the  bay  smooth  as  a  mirror ;  the 
cool  air  laden  with  forest  odors  and  the 
perfume  of  flowers,  while  the  chattering 
of  wild  parrots  could  be  heard  from  the 
shore.  Our  captain  entered  a  small  river 
or  inlet  and  poled  the  boat  to  a  convenient 
landing  place. 

A  year  later,  at  this  same  spot,  a  land- 
ing was  made  with  a  force  of  carpenters 
and  laborers  and  a  cargo  of  lumber  and 
tools.  A  place  was  cleared  in  the  forest 
for  a  house,  docks  were  built,  gardens 
laid  out,  wells  dug,  and  eventually  a  per- 
manent home  made,  comfortable  enough 
to  house  my  family  during  the  succeed- 
ing eighteen  months. 

In  all  that  time  we  were  not  molested 
by  the  natives,  and  no  case  of  illness  oc- 
curred in  any  member  of  the  household. 
It  seems  that  malaria  and  yellow  fever 
are  unknown  among  the  natives  of  this 
entire  region. 

HERONS,  WHITE  EGRETS  AND  CROCODILES' 

The  encircling  shores  of  Cochinos  Bay 
are  low  and  flat.  The  west  shore  is  a 
sandy  beach  four  or  five  feet  above  the 
water.  This  coast  is  often  a  mere  strip 
of  dry  land  separating  the  bay  from 
swampy  tracts  and  lagoons  full  of  man- 
grove trees.  Herons  and  various  wading 
birds,  including  the  white  egret,  sought 
for  its  feathers,  abound  here  in  great 
numbers.  Hunters  shoot  the  latter  bird 
by  the  hundreds,  unfortunately  in  the 
breeding  season,  because  the  feathers  are 
then  at  their  best,  and  only  the  inaccessi- 
ble nature  of  these  lonely  lagoons  and 
the  plague  of  insect  life  prevent  their 
total  extinction. 


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THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


Crocodiles  likewise  abound,  and  in  the 
night-time  may  be  heard  catching  birds 
near  the  water's  edge.  During  the  last 
two  years  some  eight  or  ten  men  have 
been  constantly  employed  killing  croco- 
diles in  the  depths  of  the  swamps  and 
carrying  on  a  profitable  business  selling 
their  hides.  In  the  remote  parts  of  the 
swamp,  where  the  great  reptiles  have 
never  been  disturbed,  they  are  easily 
killed.  An  old  hat  is  placed  on  the  end 
of  a  short  stick,  which  is  held  in  the  left 
hand  and  waved  over  the  water.  The 
crocodile  rushes  blindly  at  the  hat  and  is 
struck  a  sharp  blow  behind  the  head  with 
a  machete. 

Sharks  infest  these  shores  and  often 
swim  in  the  water  so  shallow  as  to  be- 
come half  stranded  on  the  sandy  shoals. 
Natives  say  that  in  the  old  days  this  bay 
was  a  resort  for  pirates  and  slave  traders, 
and  that  the  sharks  were  originally  at- 
tracted by  the  large  numbers  of  dead  and 
dying  slaves  thrown  overboard. 

I  IN   THE    MAHOGANY   FOREST 

The  east  shore  is  entirely  different,  to- 
tally devoid  of  sand  beaches  or  swampy 
tracts,  and  is  a  rocky  plain  from  five  to 
ten  feet  above  sea-level,  covered  by  a 
heavy  forest,  which  extends  eastward 
three  or  four  miles  to  the  edge  of  the 
swamps.. 

The  number  of  species  of  trees  is  very 
great,  and,  while  including  such  splendid 
varieties  as  mahogany,  sabicu,  ebony,  and 
Spanish  cedar,  there  are  many  other 
hardwoods,  probably  150  in  number, 
some  of  which  are  very  rare  or  quite 
unknown  to  experts  in  tropical  timbers. 
Some  of  these  trees  have  a  wood  harder 
than  ebony,  and  the  best  steel  axes  are 
frequently  broken  in  felling  them.  Many 
are  fine-grained  and  beautifully  banded 
and  veined  with  two  or  more  colors,  and 
are  susceptible  of  a  high  polish. 

The  mahogany  and  cedar  are  imposing 
trees,  the  latter  sometimes  reaching  a 
diameter  of  seven  feet.  Their  massive 
branches,  hung  with  purple  and  yellow 
orchids,  bromeliads,  ferns,  and  other  par- 
asitic plants,  are  the  resort  of  parrots 
and  other  birds  of  brilliant  plumage.  In 


contrast,  the  silent  swamps  present  a  dif- 
ferent aspect.  The  forest  is  interrupted 
by  stretches  of  open  prairie,  by  slow- 
flowing  streams  of  great  depth  and 
clumps  of  heavy  trees,  hung  with  long 
shrouds  of  gray  Spanish  moss  or  over- 
run by  climbing  cactus,  mistletoe,  and 
orchids,  which  in  early  spring  make  a  gay 
display  of  white,  yellow,  and  purple  blos- 
soms. The  royal  palm  here  reaches  its 
maximum  size,  the  stately  trunks,  sym- 
metrical as  Grecian  columns,  rising  more 
than  a  hundred  feet  to  spread  their 
crowns  of  foliage  in  the  glistening  sun- 
shine above  the  dark  and  sombre  forest. 

The  swamp  water,  having  general  cur- 
rents toward  the  sea  and  eventually  es- 
caping by  underground  channels,  is  clear 
and  perfectly  wholesome,  with,  however, 
a  slight  taste  and  color  of  vegetable  mat- 
ter. Many  of  these  lagoons  are  very 
picturesque,  especially  where  long  vistas 
open  up  in  the  forest  and  display  the 
overhanging  foliage  dipping  down  to  the 
water  surface.  These  black  pools  are  oc- 
casionally disturbed  by  the  splash  of  a 
crocodile  or  the  rising  of  the  "sevalo,"  a 
kind  of  fish  that  comes  from  the  sea 
through  subterranean  passages  and  rivers 
which  drain  the  swamps. 

The  general  land  surface,  while  per- 
fectly level,  is  rocky  and  the  soil  is  very 
scanty,  being  apparently  washed  down 
into  the  numerous  cracks  and  joints  in 
the  rocks.  It  seems  remarkable  that  trees 
of  great  size  can  and  do  grow  on  such 
little  soil,  and  one  often  sees  their  long 
roots  spreading  over  the  ground  for 
twenty  yards  or  more  in  search  of  some 
hole  or  crevice  to  descend.  The  soil, 
however,  is  remarkably  fertile,  and  such 
plants  as  reach  down  deep  enough  to  be 
independent  of  surface  conditions  of 
moisture  and  drought  succeed  admirably. 
Bananas,  limes,  and  oranges  of  delicious 
flavor  and  quality  are  raised  in  several 
places  near  the  bay.  Vegetables  and 
small  fruits  succeed  only  when  suffi- 
ciently watered,  as  the  light,  porous  soil 
dries  out  very  quickly.  The  rocks  are 
entirely  of  coral  formation,  very  hard 
and  rough  on  the  exposed  surface,  but 
underneath  turning  to  a  soft,  yellow 


AMONG  THE  MAHOGANY  FORESTS  OF  CUBA       487 


488 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


Photo  by  Walter  D.  Wilcox 


A   FIELD   OF   CORN    IN   A    CLEARING 


Six  months  before  this  picture  was  taken  the  field  was  covered  with  a  dense  tropical  forest: 

Cochinos  Bay,  Cuba 


stone  made  up  of  shell  fragments  and 
corals  similar  to  existing  beaches  on  the 
western  shore  of  the  bay. 

Outside  of  two  or  three  poisonous 
plants,  these  forests  contain  very  few 
dangers  of  any  kind.  The  poisonous 
manzanillo  tree  spreads  its  picturesque 
branches  out  over  the  rocky  shores  and 
drops  its  green  apples  into  the  sea.  Cer- 
tain fish  eat  these  apples,  and  in  some 
cases,  when  caught  at  the  critical  time, 
have  caused  fatal  cases  of  poisoning. 
The  milky  juice  is  feared  by  every  Cuban 
axeman,  who  will  never  under  any  cir- 
cumstances fell  one  of  these  trees,  a  sin- 
gle drop  in  the  eye  being  sufficient  to 
cause  total  blindness.  Snakes  are  abun- 
dant, but  universally  harmless,  while  the 
sting  of  Cuban  scorpions  and  centipedes 
is  little  worse  than  that  of  honey-bees. 
One  native  nearly  ninety  years  old  has 


spent  forty-five  years  on  his  clearing  in 
these  woods  and  is  still  strong  enough  to 
do  all  his  work. 

THE   CHANGE   OF   SEASONS 

At  the  close  of  winter,  in  March  and 
April,  the  forest  loses  a  great  part  of  its 
foliage,  while  some  varieties  of  trees  shed 
their  leaves  altogether.  This  period 
marks  the  close  of  the  dry  season.  The 
entire  forest  when  seen  from  a  distance 
is  suffused  with  a  reddish  glow,  as  the 
old  leaves  fall  and  the  new  ones  burst 
from  their  buds.  This  is  in  many  re- 
spects the  finest  part  of  the  year  in  Cuba,, 
an  uninterrupted  succession  of  bright 
sunshiny  days,  with  an  ideal  temperature 
both  day  and  night.  The  forest  revels 
in  a  profusion  of  flowers,  one  kind  of 
tree  succeeding  another  in  its  time  of 
blossoming,  and  the  air  is  sweet  with  the 


AMONG  THE  MAHOGANY  FORESTS  OF  CUBA       489 


Photo  by  Walter  D.  Wilcox 

SEMI-PIRATICAL   SEA   CAPTAIN    OF   A   TRADING   SCHOONER   ON   THE   SOUTH 

COAST   OF   CUBA 

Most  of  the  traffic  between  small  settlements  on  the  south  coast  of  Cuba  is  carried  on 

such  craft 


490         THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


AMONG  THE  MAHOGANY  FORESTS  OF  CUBA       491 


scent  of  countless  blossoms.  The  maja- 
gua  tree,  famous  for  its  green  wood  and 
fibrous  bark,  from  which  the  strongest 
ropes  are  plaited,  is  brilliant  with  tulip- 
like  blossoms  of  fiery  red  color  ;  the  baria 
is  hung  with  masses  of  white,  and  the 
ruble,  the  so-called  Cuban  oak,  is  adorned 
with  clusters  of  delicate  pink  and  white 
flowers,  resembling  the  mountain  rhodo- 
dendron. The  dull  hum  of  honey-bees 
tells  of  the  harvest  of  nectar,  and  at  this 
season  the  natives  are  kept  busy  pressing 
honey  and  melting  wax. 

The  variety  of  birds  is  very  great  at 
this  period,  as  the  Florida  species,  driven 
south  by  the  cold  of  winter,  have  not  as 
yet  returned  to  the  north,  and  the  native 
birds  are  singing  and  mating.  The  Cuban 
crows  call  one  another  with  a  great  va- 
riety of  peculiar  sounds  and  modulations, 
which  one  could  easily  fancy  to  be  a 
kind  of  conversation  among  themselves, 
and  the  parrots  come  in  noisy  flocks  of 
several  hundreds  and  drive  away  by 
their  loud  chattering  all  thought  of  sleep 
after  the  earliest  trace  of  dawn. 

Emerald-colored  humming  birds  dart 
from  flower  to  flower  on  the  gaudy 
hibiscus  bushes  or  poise  in  midair  amid 
the  pink  clusters  of  the  coral  vine.  Many 
of  the  wild  birds  are  sociable,  and  I  have 
seen  four  or  five  different  kinds  at  one 
time  on  or  near  the  verandas  of  the 
house. 

MISERABLE  POVERTY  OF  THE  FEW  NATIVES 

The  natives  of  this  region  are  a  mixed 
race,  father  dark  in  color  and  with  a 
probable  mixture  of  considerable  negro 
blood.  They  live  in  miserable  houses 
thatched  with  palm  leaves,  generally 
without  windows  or  other  protection 
from  insects  and  weather.  They  are  ex- 
cellent woodsmen,  handling  the  axe  and 
machete  with  great  skill.  They  think 
nothing  of  walking  ten  or  fifteen  miles 
on  the  most  trifling  errand.  Many  have 
small  clearings  where  they  raise  bananas, 
yucca,  and  a  kind  of  sweet  potato.  These 
fruits  and  vegetables,  together  with  their 
live  stock  and  beehives,  eked  out  by  the 
results  of  hunting  and  fishing,  give  them 
an  uncertain  and  miserable  diet.  When 


they  are  fortunate  enough  to  get  work, 
they  buy  provisions;  but  a  little  stock  in 
the  cupboard  is  a  temptation  to  quit 
working  at  once.  It  would  be  difficult  to 
find  a  lower  standard  of  diet  and  general 
living  outside  of  savage  tribes. 

From  lack  of  care  and  cleanliness,  the 
teeth  of  these  people  decay  and  fall  out 
before  middle  age,  and  their  monotonous 
diet  causes  suffering  from  digestive  trou- 
bles. Like  all  Cubans,  they  are  very  fond 
of  pets,  and  it  is  no  uncommon'  thing  to 
see  all  the  ordinary  animals  of  the  barn 
yard — goats,  pigs,  turkeys,  chickens, 
etc.— wandering  at  will  inside  their 
houses.  On  an  iron  hoop  suspended 
from  a  rafter  a  tame  parrot  may  usually 
be  seen,  while  many  houses  have  a  kind 
of  rat-like  animal,  called  the  "jutia," 
which  lives  in  the  forest  trees,  tied  up  as 
a  half  wild  and  treacherous  pet.  Naked 
children  sprawl  about  on  the  floor  and 
many  dogs,  in  a  state  of  extreme  emacia- 
tion from  continued  starvation,  howl  at 
every  passer-by  and  add  to  the  general 
misery.  Were  it  not  for  the  balmy  tem- 
perature and  the  continued  sunshine  and 
general  cheerfulness  of  the  Cuban  cli- 
mate, these  people  would  rapidly  become 
extinct.  In  such  hovels,  abounding  in 
filth  and  squalor,  one  meets  with  evi- 
dences of  genuine  hospitality  in  marked 
contrast  to  the  surroundings.  The 
stranger  is  invited  to  enter,  offered  the 
best  chair,  and  coffee  is  prepared  at  once. 
Cuban  coffee  is  roasted  in  small  quanti- 
ties and  ground  just  before  making.  A 
cloth  bag  holds  the  ground  coffee  while 
hot  water  is  filtered  through  it  several 
times.  The  resulting  coffee,  while  strong 
and  excessively  roasted,  has  a  very  fine 
aroma  and  flavor.  Rather  than  be  de- 
prived of  his  coffee  and  cigarettes,  a 
Cuban  would  prefer  to  go  several  days 
with  little  or  no  food. 

In  the  huts  of  these  humble  people 
great  formality,  an  inheritance  from  the 
Spanish,  is  observed  on  arriving  and  de- 
parting. Withal  there  is  general  igno- 
rance, few  being  able  to  read  or  write,  and 
their  life  is  woefully  monotonous,  though 
they  seem  light-hearted  and  happy,  prat- 
tling for  hours  about  the  friost  trifling 


492 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


events  in  their  daily  life.  They  observe 
frequent  holidays  in  connection  with 
church  festivals,  birthdays,  etc.,  and  de- 
light in  dancing  and  music,  the  latter 
being  barbaric  and  showing  strong  evi- 
dence of  African  origin.  They  believe 
that  the  moon  has  a  great  effect  on  the 
planted  seed,  and  sometimes  one  sees  an 
umbrella  carried  at  night  to  ward  off  the 
evil  effects  of  moonlight. 

CHARTING   COCHINOS   BAY 

A  systematic  survey  with  plane-table 
'and  alidade  was  made,  with  the  purpose 
of  preparing  a  chart  of  Cochinos  Bay. 
All  the  preliminary  work  was  done  in  a 
sail-boat,  which  proved  a  very  tedious 
and  uncertain  method  of  working.  Later, 
a  motor  boat  was  used,  without  which  it 
would  have  been  impossible  to  make  sys- 
tematic soundings.  It  was  necessary  to 
traverse  every  part  of  the  coast  on  foot, 
and  as  the  entire  east  coast  is  a  rocky 
ledge,  worn  by  the  elements  into  a 
rough  slag-like  surface,  called  "diente  de 
perro,"  or  dog's-tooth  coral,  sometimes 
no  more  than  a  quarter  mile  could  be 
charted  in  a  day's  work. 

Three  rivers  enter  the  bay,  besides 
several  small  streams.  The  larger  rivers 
are  in  every  case  the  mouths  of  under- 
ground streams,  which  drain  the  swamps 
and,  breaking  out  near  the  coast,  run  the 
last  part  of  their  course  in  open  rivers, 
called  "caletas,"  which  are  deep-water 
inlets  or  coves.  These  are  filled  with  salt 
water,  as  the  tide  enters  and  even  pene- 
trates underground  and  makes  the  water 
brackish  more  than  a  mile  inland.  Only 
in  the  height  of  the  rainy  season,  when 
for  several  months  the  current  has  a  ve- 
locity of  four  or  five  miles  an  hour,  does 
the  water  in  these  "caletas"  become  par- 
tially fresh.  The  largest  is  Caleta  Ro- 
sario,  on  the  east  coast  of  the  bay.  It  is 
half  a  mile  long  and  from  150  to  400  feet 
wide,  with  a  minimum  depth  of  over  six 
feet,  thus  providing  a  safe  refuge  in 
stormy  weather  for  small  schooners. 

REMARKABLE   DEPTH    OF   COCHINOS    BAY 

As  existing  charts  do  not  show  the 
depth  of  water  in  Cochinos  Bay,  con- 


siderable time  was  spent  in  gathering 
sufficient  data  to  make  the  work  fairly 
complete.  A  wooden  reel  with  sounding 
line  was  made  and  the  first  sounding 
taken  one-quarter  mile  west  from  Caleta 
Rosario.  The  entire  line,  900  feet  in 
length,  was  run  out  without  reaching 
bottom,  and  this  surprising  depth  neces- 
sitated making  a  stronger  apparatus  and 
considerably  reduced  the  number  of 
soundings  finally  taken. 

When  it  is  remembered  that  all  the 
surrounding  land  for  probably  forty 
miles  in  every  direction  is  a  level  plain, 
ten  or  fifteen  feet  above  sea-level  at  most, 
the  great  depths  of  this  bay  are  remark- 
able. At  one  point,  about  the  middle  of 
the  east  shore,  only  one-third  of  a  mile 
from  the  land,  a  depth  of  1,245  ^eet  was 
discovered.  No  soundings  were  at- 
tempted in  the  middle  of  the  bay,  as  the 
great  depth  of  water  resulted  in  a  re- 
sistance on  the  sounding  apparatus  that 
made  the  work  impracticable.  From  an 
analysis  of  the  soundings  made,  it  seems 
probable  that  the  greatest  depths  will  be 
found  to  reach  2,500  or  3,000  feet.  If 
drained  of  water,  Cochinos  Bay  would 
appear  as  a  deep  and  comparatively  nar- 
row valley,  with  canyon-like  and  fre- 
quently precipitous  walls  on  its  eastern 
side. 

About  ten  miles  due  south  of  the  bay, 
there  is  a  small  island,  called  Cayo 
Piedra,  with  a  lighthouse  visible  nine 
miles.  From  this  point  northwesterly  to 
the  west  side  of  the  bay  there  is  a  long 
line  of  shoals,  which  serve  to  inclose  the 
bay  from  the  effects  of  southwesterly 
seas.  The  deep-water  entrance  between 
these  reefs  and  the  east  shore  is  3^ 
miles  wide,  and  only  in  times  of  south- 
easterly gales  do  heavy  seas  sweep  into 
the  bay ;  but  even  then  their  force  is  rap- 
idly d'issipated,  till  at  the  upper  parts 
their  influence  is  rarely  felt.  Great 
depth  of  water  and  coral  rocks  make 
poor  anchorages,  as  a  general  rule;  but 
with  local  knowledge  of  good  ground  or 
by  use  of  fixed  anchors,  ships  can  ride 
out  the  severest  gales  in  the  upper  part  of 
Cochinos  Bay  as  safely  as  in  a  com- 
pletely land-locked  harbor.  There  are  no 


AMONG  THE  MAHOGANY  FORESTS  OF  CUBA       493 


492 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


events  in  their  daily  life.  They  observe 
frequent  holidays  in  connection  with 
church  festivals,  birthdays,  etc.,  and  de- 
light in  dancing  and  music,  the  latter 
being  barbaric  and  showing  strong  evi- 
dence of  African  origin.  They  believe 
that  the  moon  has  a  great  effect  on  the 
planted  seed,  and  sometimes  one  sees  an 
umbrella  carried  at  night  to  ward  off  the 
evil  effects  of  moonlight. 

CHARTING   COCHINOS   BAY 

A  systematic  survey  with  plane-table 
'and  alidade  was  made,  with  the  purpose 
of  preparing  a  chart  of  Cochinos  Bay. 
All  the  preliminary  work  was  done  in  a 
sail-boat,  which  proved  a  very  tedious 
and  uncertain  method  of  working.  Later, 
a  motor  boat  was  used,  without  which  it 
would  have  been  impossible  to  make  sys- 
tematic soundings.  It  was  necessary  to 
traverse  every  part  of  the  coast  on  foot, 
and  as  the  entire  east  coast  is  a  rocky 
ledge,  worn  by  the  elements  into  a 
rough  slag-like  surface,  called  "diente  de 
perro,"  or  dog's-tooth  coral,  sometimes 
no  more  than  a  quarter  mile  could  be 
charted  in  a  day's  work. 

Three  rivers  enter  the  bay,  besides 
several  small  streams.  The  larger  rivers 
are  in  every  case  the  mouths  of  under- 
ground streams,  which  drain  the  swamps 
and,  breaking  out  near  the  coast,  run  the 
last  part  of  their  course  in  open  rivers, 
called  "caletas,"  which  are  deep-water 
inlets  or  coves.  These  are  filled  with  salt 
water,  as  the  tide  enters  and  even  pene- 
trates underground  and  makes  the  water 
brackish  more  than  a  mile  inland.  Only 
in  the  height  of  the  rainy  season,  when 
for  several  months  the  current  has  a  ve- 
locity of  four  or  five  miles  an  hour,  does 
the  water  in  these  "caletas"  become  par- 
tially fresh.  The  largest  is  Caleta  Ro- 
sario,  on  the  east  coast  of  the  bay.  It  is 
half  a  mile  long  and  from  150  to  400  feet 
wide,  with  a  minimum  depth  of  over  six 
feet,  thus  providing  a  safe  refuge  in 
stormy  weather  for  small  schooners. 

REMARKABLE   DEPTH    OF    COCHINOS    BAY 

As  existing  charts  do  not  show  the 
depth  of  water  in  Cochinos  Bay,  con- 


siderable time  was  spent  in  gathering 
sufficient  data  to  make  the  work  fairly 
complete.  A  wooden  reel  with  sounding 
line  was  made  and  the  first  sounding 
taken  one-quarter  mile  west  from  Caleta 
Rosario.  The  entire  line,  900  feet  in 
length,  was  run  out  without  reaching 
bottom,  and  this  surprising  depth  neces- 
sitated making  a  stronger  apparatus  and 
considerably  reduced  the  number  of 
soundings  finally  taken. 

When  it  is  remembered  that  all  the 
surrounding  land  for  probably  forty 
miles  in  every  direction  is  a  level  plain, 
ten  or  fifteen  feet  above  sea-level  at  most, 
the  great  depths  of  this  bay  are  remark- 
able. At  one  point,  about  the  middle  of 
the  east  shore,  only  one-third  of  a  mile 
from  the  land,  a  depth  of  1,245  ^eet  was 
discovered.  No  soundings  were  at- 
tempted in  the  middle  of  the  bay,  as  the 
great  depth  of  water  resulted  in  a  re- 
sistance on  the  sounding  apparatus  that 
made  the  work  impracticable.  From  an 
analysis  of  the  soundings  made,  it  seems 
probable  that  the  greatest  depths  will  be 
found  to  reach  2,500  or  3,000  feet.  If 
drained  of  water,  Cochinos  Bay  would 
appear  as  a  deep  and  comparatively  nar- 
row valley,  with  canyon-like  and  fre- 
quently precipitous  walls  on  its  eastern 
side. 

About  ten  miles  due  south  of  the  bay, 
there  is  a  small  island,  called  Cayo 
Piedra,  with  a  lighthouse  visible  nine 
miles.  From  this  point  northwesterly  to 
the  west  side  of  the  bay  there  is  a  long 
line  of  shoals,  which  serve  to  inclose  the 
bay  from  the  effects  of  southwesterly 
seas.  The  deep-water  entrance  between 
these  reefs  and  the  east  shore  is  3^2 
miles  wide,  and  only  in  times  of  south- 
easterly gales  do  heavy  seas  sweep  into 
the  bay ;  but  even  then  their  force  is  rap- 
idly d'issipated,  till  at  the  upper  parts 
their  influence  is  rarely  felt.  Great 
depth  of  water  and  coral  rocks  make 
poor  anchorages,  as  a  general  rule;  but 
with  local  knowledge  of  good  ground  or 
by  use  of  fixed  anchors,  ships  can  ride 
out  the  severest  gales  in  the  upper  part  of 
Cochinos  Bay  as  safely  as  in  a  com- 
pletely land-locked  harbor.  There  are  no 


AMONG  THE  MAHOGANY  FORESTS  OF  CUBA       493 


494 


THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE 


exposed  rocks  or  dangerous  reefs  within 
the  bay  itself,  except  immediately  ad- 
jacent to  the  shore,  and  ships  can  safely 
enter  this  bay  on  the  darkest  nights,  hug- 
ging the  east  shore  within  ico  yards  if 
necessary,  in  perfect  security. 

A  simpler  way  of  getting  an  idea  of 
the  depth  of  water  in  Cochinos  Bay 
would  be  to  imagine  the  water  level  to 
fall  25  feet.  This  would  hardly  change 
the  position  or  form  of  the  east  coast. 
The  west  shore,  however,  would  advance 
about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  at  the  upper 
end  of  the  bay  and  gradually  increase  to 
two  miles  at  Punta  del  Padre,  and  then 
run  ten  miles  seaward  in  a  southeasterly 
direction  to  Cayo  Piedra,  making  the  west 
coast  about  twenty-five  miles  in  length. 
The  bay  would  then  appear  a  very  long 
and  narrow,  almost  land-locked,  body  of 
very  deep  water.  The  tide  averages  less 
than  eighteen  inches.  West  of  the  south 
end  of  the  bay  there  are  vast  lagoons, 
with  innumerable  small  islands  "entirely 
covered  with  mangrove  trees.  The  water 
varies  from  eighteen  inches  to  several 
feet  in  depth,  and  my  launch  being  of 
light  draft,  it  was  found  practicable  to  ex- 
plore these,  island  seas  without  difficulty. 
Charts  do  not  correctly  show  the  great 
extent  nor  true  form  of  this  interesting 
region. 

WONDERS   OF   TROPICAL    MARINE    LIFE 

Among  the  beautiful  shells  of  the  west- 
coast  sand  beaches  were  pieces  of  spongy 
volcanic  rock,  purple  and  green  in  color, 
which  may  have  had  their  origin  in  the 
eruptions  in  Martinique. 

As  may  be  imagined,  the  water  in  this 
deep  bay  is  of  the  utmost  purity  and 
clearness.  The  color  is  blue,  rivaling 
that  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  the  bot- 
tom may  be  clearly  seen  in  forty  or  fifty 
feet  of  water.  The  wonders  of  tropical 
marine  life  afford  a  never-ending  source 
of  delightful  study.  On  bright,  calm 
mornings  one  can  look  down  through 
fathoms  of  crystal  water  and  see  the  sun- 
light sparkling  on  snow-white  beds  of 
coral  sand.  Among  branching  corals, 
Neptune's  cups,  sponges,  and  purple  sea- 
fans,  fish  of  many  strange  forms  and 
colors  may  be  seen  gliding  to  and  fro, 


apparently  within  grasp  of  the  hand— 
the  blue  llora,  the  red  and  green  parrot- 
fish,  the  red-snapper,  and  the  spotted 
cherna.  On  moonlight  nights,  moving 
rapidly  through  the  water  in  a  launch, 
one  feels  as  though  sailing  over  an  en- 
chanted sea  of  crystal,  where  every  rip- 
ple is  faintly  outlined  with  phosphores- 
cent fire. 

The  bay  is  a  fisherman's  paradise. 
The  rapacious  and  dangerous  picua  is 
caught  by  trolling  from  rapidly  moving 
sailing  craft,  but  still  fishing  in  deep 
water  gives  better  results.  Sharks  often 
bite  fish  off  the  hooks  before  they  can  be 
landed,  unless  the  line  is  taken  in  rapidly. 
Sea  turtles  of  several  varieties  and  the 
shell-bearing  tortoise  abound,  the  Cuban 
t